Sustainability as opportunity for innovation in tourism

Studio Spark Sustainable Innovation in tourism

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Last Thursday, the 28th of October, I contributed a lecture to the first "Forum Duurzaam Toerisme", organised by Toerisme Vlaanderen. This Forum is ment to be organised every year, and is dedicated to motivate the industry to adapt best practices of sustainable tourism. Other interesting speakers were oa. Peter De Wilde (administrateur Generaal Toerisme Vlaanderen), Griet Geudens (responsible for sustainability Toerisme Vlaanderen), Mirjam Dresmé (ANVR NL) and Wendy Pletinck (Thomas Cook) on how far they got apdapting the Travelife initiative.

Apart of the presentations, there were some intersting debates afterwards on how to adapt sustainability (the dirvers, the barriers) in tourism.

Please not that the presentation is in the lay-out of the new eco-startup 'Studio Spark' ; - )

From grey to green in seven steps

From Dark Grey To Bright Green in seven steps

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Copenhagen (COP15) ended in a minor tone. It became Nopenhagen.

Somehow, it is not a big surprise.

Always believed that the environmental crisis will not be solved in the land of efficiency (rules and regulations, measures and things...), but in the land of effectiveness (the land of harmony, interdependence, creativity and innovation) Different approach. Different brain. Different thinking. But of-course, necessity is the mother of all innovation, and it is a pity that it is not stimulated via new measures, so new markets can flourish.

The presentation above shows that the pathway to green in big companies processes more or less trough similar steps. From the land of efficiency to the land of effectiveness.

Maybe creatives should finally take-over from policy-makers. Maybe that's where it should go.

TerraCycle's 'waste-to-product' business model

I preordered Tom Szaky's first book "Revolution in a bottle" at Amazon, and got it today.
He's the CEO of Terracycle, a company that creates FMCG-products that are entirely made from waste.
Terracycle's wormpoop for example is a success all over Canada

My talk on Pecha Kucha Night Brussels, 20th of Marsh

7 Do S And Dont S Of Green Marketing

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Next Friday, I will do a talk on the Pecha Kucha night about Green Marketing (providing seven do's and don'ts).
The concept is that you have 20 slides, and have 20 seconds for each slide. it promises to have a good tempo ;- )
You'll find my slides here that will function as background illustrations. Wanna hear the story? Be quick and
register to attend the event for free, here

The 10 Environmental worldviews

This is an interesting overview that maps the attitude towards the environment in 10 segments. I found it in Joel Makower's new book: Strategies for the Green Economy:

1. Greenest Americans:
Everything is connected, and our daily actions have an impact on the environment (9%)

2. Ungreens:
Environmental degradation and pollution are inevitable in maintaining AMerica's prosperity (3%)

3. Compassionate caretakers:
Healthy families need a healthy environment (24%)

4. Proud traditionalists:
Religion and morality dictate actions in a world where humans are superior to nature (20%)

5. Murky Middles:
Indifferent to most everything, including the environment (17%)

6. Antiauthoritarian Materialists:
Little can be done to protect the environment, so why not get a piece of the pie (7%)

7. Driven independents:
Protecting the earth is fine, as long as it doesn't get inthe way of success (7%)

8. Cruel Worlders:
Resentment and isolation leave no room for environmental concerns (6%)

9. Borderline Fatalists:
Getting material and status needs met on a daily basistrumps worries on the planet (5%)

10. Postmodern Idealists:
Green lifestyles are part of a new way of being (3%)

Green Marketing techniques, the total keynote in Dutch

Green Marketing

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This afternoon, I had a 1,5 hour talk on Green Marketing at Karel De Grote Hogeschool,
for an audience of marketing students.

My aim was to generate interest and show students that:

- Green is not dull
- You can see it as a marketing challenge to turn it into success, and make it part of society
- There is a good chemistry between sustainability, creativity and new media

1,5 hour is a long period to fill, so I made a program covering four main topics:

1) What is Green marketing, and the difference with Greenwashing
2) What is sustainability (the triple P model)
3) Green is the next big thing (the innovations, the shifts, the new thinking on design...)
4) Green marketing techniques, largely based on the Green Marketing Manifesto + some flattering examples of campaigns,
products and services.

Turning Elephant poo into paper

Great example of 'upcycling'. The people at The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company have taken sustainability to the next level, creating various stationary products from dried elephant dung. However, the companies’ mission has a purpose beyond making a functional product from elephant poo. The stationary goods are part of a creative sustainable cycle in which portions of their profits are contributed to elephant welfare and conservation. Not only do they save trees, but also the elephants themselves are benefited.

Their paper making process is quite fascinating – the elephant dung is collected from various conservation parks which is then dried, washed, and eventually processed into paper sheets that are made into products ranging from notebook journals to photo albums. Over 10 standard sized journals are produced from a single piece of poo. Each product comes with an informative booklet of the unique production process as well as tidbits about elephant conservation, making the stationary both functional and educational. And no, the paper does not smell of poo! Visit their Poo-tique for more information about their products.

http://poopoopaper.com

Fairtrade enters hard discount at LIDL

After carrefour started offering eco-alternatives in various categories with its own eco-private labels (Carrefour Bio, Carrefour Solidair...), LIDL (hard discounter) started today with filling its shelves a range of Max Havelaar/ Fiartrade products within their own brand "Fairglobe".

Nike Considered: Nike's first sustainable running shoe

NIke has chosen for Jordan Air as platform for it's first line of sustainable shoes, nike considered.

Some of the intentions that are very close or equal to cradle-to-cralde:

1. Must be made from recyclable materials. (i.e., 100% recyclable plastics or veg-tanned leathers.)
2. Zero Toxins. Zero chemical adhesives. (no glue.)
3. Mechanical vs Chemical. (using mechanics and engineering to put the shoe together instead of chemical solutions.)
4. Closed Loop Technology. (the shoe must be able to come back 100% as another shoe or something else. Nothing goes to waste.)

Read the entire story of the concepting and processing on the blog of foodwear designer Jeff Staple, here

Pangea organics' plantable packaging

Pangea Organics, ecocentric bodycare (always beneficial, never artificial) exists since some years, and is a great example of how their truly sustainable vision is reflected in all aspects of their business, both company, brand and products.





Company:

- They buy ingredients from women cooperatives
- Support of 40.000 acres of organic agriculture land in 52 countries
- Designed to be a roll model for other sustainable startup companies
- 100% wind powered factory
- Total Product Lifcycle optimalisation
- Ethical HR-management
- 3000 square foot organic garden for employees

Brand:

- Always beneficial, never artificial
- It just doesn't smell nice, it is nice
- Always organic, never ordinary
- Good for everybody and the planet

Product:

- fastest growing organic skin care line, with fastest growing packaging in the world
(you can plant the packaging, and usefull herbs pop-up)
- Complete line of organic cosmetics and bodycare
- Free of petroleum and all kinds of artificial ingredients

Here you see Pangea Organics Founder and CEO Joshua Scott Onysko talking about it at the Greenfestival in 2006:

Google announces RE < C

Today, Google announced RE < c :
Think renewable electricity cheaper than coal.

Google is planning to start $10s of millions in investments in R&D, with the anticipation of $100s of millions of investment in the coming few years.

The target: 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity at or below the cost of coal-generated electricity. Their initial targets are solar, wind, and "advanced geothermal.
It's important to point out that this, like all of Google's seemingly philanthropic efforts, is an investment scheme, not a giveaway. Google wants to turn its gold into more gold, and investing in these technologies is a fantastic way to do that. That's not to say that they aren't doing a "good" thing...in fact, this makes far more sense to me than purely philanthropic efforts.

Read more here at Ecogeek

Another opportunity for great brand stories: biomimicry! (1)

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Since its birth on earth 3,8 billion years ago, life spread out in countless species interacting in a dynamic balance with the planet. Today, the number of living species is estimated at 15 millions. Each one has secured its long-term survival through a natural adaptation process of trial-and-errors and thus displays a concrete application of the principles of sustainability.

The prime idea of Biomimicry is that nature already has in stock a certain number of answers to the problems of durability with which we are confronted today. Biomimicry Europa defines Biomimicry as an ” innovation process encouraging the transfer of ideas, concepts and strategies inspired from the living world, with the objective of designing human applications aiming at a sustainable development ” (extracted from Biomimicry Europa’s statutes).

Concretely, in front of a given problem, the Biomimicry methodology consists in looking for highly capable answers already given by living beings, albeit cost/emission-effective, and/or non-toxic. It is then a question of identifying the champions, namely the organisms the survival of which depends on the quality of the solution. Biomimicry delivers, in this manner, three levels of increasing requirement in terms of sustainability:

The first level of inspiration comes from the shapes which the identified living beings actually take;

The second level of inspiration relates to the “manufacturing” processes operating in those living beings;

At the last level, one gets inspired by the interactions which the species entertain between each other and by the global functioning of natural ecosystems.

The ultimate objective of the Biomimicry methodology is to propose solutions up to the third level so that the selected objects, techniques and organization structures allow the human race to be in a dynamic balance with the ecosystem of our planet.

Straight from biomimicryeuropa.org

Green is the new Black

This article is copied directly from cnet, news.com. It is about Connecting '07, the annually trade conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America.

"The Tesla" is stealing the show again! It is a perfect example of good Green Marketing:

- First of all it is a fu*k*ng cool car! Lots of cool celebrities and industry leaders are
driving a Tesla these days (from Hollywood to Sillicon Valley)
- Secondly; it is eco-efficient

Just to make you happy:
Read below how Green and Biomicry are the next big thing in product- and industrial design these days.

SAN FRANCISCO--This year in design, green is the new black.

That line has easily been trumpeted by everyone from design trade magazines to consumer media moguls like Oprah. But here at Connecting '07, the annual trade conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America, it's even more obvious.

Headlining the opening day keynote Thursday was Martin Eberhard, co-founder of Tesla Motors, in a talk he called "sleek and green." Eberhard was accompanied by Barney Hatt, designer of the Lotus and the Tesla Roadster, a $98,000 electric-powered sports car which will be available at the beginning of next year. (Of course, Tesla's sports car has appeal beyond environmentalists, and this year, it's been the zeitgeist of Silicon Valley.)

Eberhard, who founded Tesla Motors in 2003 because of worries about foreign oil dependence and global warming, said he wanted to design a "Porschius," a cross between a Porsche and a Toyota Prius. By building an all-electric car, he hoped to double the efficiency of the Prius, he said. "The 'Porshius' would appeal to people who love cars and care about the environment."

Still, environmental journalist Alex Steffen took the Tesla Roadster down a notch in a follow-up talk. He said that although they're "great," consumers must consider the manufacturing, maintenance and disposal costs of any car when they buy it.

"Tesla cars aren't the solution," he said, instead people must reduce their consumption if they want to improve the trends toward global climate change.

Eco-design talks are also woven into the three-day confab, through a track of presentations on sustainable product design, as well as featured speakers. Dell, for example, is touting its international green computing design competition at the conference. Janine Benyus, the founder of the nonprofit Biomicry Institute, will speak Friday about how designers can get inspired by nature to improve the efficiency of products, for example.

A Mantra of Sustainable living and green consumer motivations

During ages, consumers where only aware of one thing they feel as ‘home’. These days are different. As material needs get satisfied, and the World is flat (and people get worried on climate change and political instability), people feel more ‘levels’ as their home. In every level, they feel the need of health, neatness, honesty, happiness, beauty and peace This is just a thought. But it means green business has the opportunity to detect and meet more needs. If you can use it to convince your clients to go green, go for it!


1) MY SOUL
>>> I want to feel consious and develope my personality
2) MY BODY
>>> I want to stay healthy
3) MY HOME
>>> I want a sociable and comfortable place to live
4) MY COMMUNITY
>>> I want to feel accepted by people who are important to me and enjoy a happy and durable relation with them
5) SOCIETY
>>> I want to live in a safe and positive, well designed society and look forward to a prosperous future
6) THE BIOSPHERE
>>> I want the eco-system to stay alive

Green positioning strategies

During a relaxing holiday last week, I've read some books on sustainable business and eco-branding. I turned some of my notes and thougts into this graphic.

It depicts different tactics to build a green marketing strategy. I want to map the basic, but smart practices. It is just a first scetch. All suggestions are welcome to make it better.

First cradle-to-cradle congress in Europe, 1 and 2 November 2007 in Maastricht

The planet prosperity foundation organises the very first Cradle-to-cradle seminar in Europe. It will be held in Maastricht, the 1st and 2nd of November.
Cradle-to-cradle is a revolutionary design principle that brings sustainability to a higher level. At the c-to-c-point, environmentalism meets consumerism. They make each-other stronger.
Read about cradle-to-cradle here.

The achievements of Anita Roddick

Anita Roddick, the founder of the Bodyshop was the original mass-market green and ethical entrepreneur, and the first woman to combine sexy with sustainability.

Read more on her achievements and the business strategy of the Body Shop on Wordchanging.com

Who beat "Plant Love": eco-design, cradle-to-cradle and social marketing in one

CARGO Cosmetics introduces PlantLove, a collection of 12 lipsticks each cased in a compostable plastic tube made out of corn. The lipsticks are made from a plant based formula with no added petroleum products. The box is also eco-friendly and infused with seeds which sprout wildflowers when planted. Five of the colours were designed by “celebrities” such as Lindsay Lohan, while 6 lipsticks were inspired by eco destinations like Yellowstone. If that weren’t enough already, CARGO is donating $2 from every sale to a Children’s Hospital. How’s that for social entrepreneurship?

Remarkable: Supplier of recycled office products

Ever thought you could write with a plastic cup? Or store your pencils in an old tire? Welcome to Remarkable, a product design company where UK waste is recycled and made into fun, exciting & innovative office products. In their Worcester-based factory, video cassettes become pencils and juice cartons become notepads, demonstrating a different (and very green) approach to both recycling and product design.

There product catalog is very impressive with a wide variety of funny designed products.

There brand belief is build on the fascination that cool tools and gadgets can be recycled tools and gadgets. "I used tro be an old tire..."

Visit their site here

Found at http://www.inhabitat.com/

Just because it saves the world, that doesn't make it popular

[This is the second in a series of five guest posts at THREEHUGGER looking at the importance of brand strategy and effective marketing for green and ethical businesses. For post one, click here.]

The key to marketing sustainability is making it relevant to values consumers already hold. Instead of trying to convince people they need to care about "sustainability" — it's more productive to talk to them about honesty, responsibility, fairness and innovation - all the things sustainability, at its core, is about.
A quite impressive 1.4 million people read Treehugger in the course of a month -- yet that's not enough to sustain a movement. For sustainability to be sustainable, it has to instigate a permanent structural change in how MOST PEOPLE live their lives. To reach a majority of people, we need to make our values relevant to a majority of people. And the majority of First World earthlings don't wake up planning to save the planet. Instead, they're hungry for breakfast, concerned about their family, curious about the newest episode of CSI, and wondering how they're going to get through their day. It's important to understand what captures the imaginations and anxieties of the folks outside our 1.4 million circle of tree huggers. Here are some numbers:
• US Magazine circulation: 1,850,000 weekly• Viewers watching "Dancing With The Stars" 22,800,000• Harry Potter's opening weekend gross $77.4 million• YouTube viewings of the Angry Professor destroying a student's cell phone: 3,136,515
This doesn't mean that you need to hire Paris Hilton, or indiscriminately smash a few cell phones. But it does mean that mission-driven marketers should go out of their way to find points where their issues intersect with people's values. It's easy for those of us who've given our day jobs over to sustainability to assume that more mainstream folks are shallow and self-interested. But that really isn't the case.
US Magazine loves to show the likes of Kate Hudson and Ben Affleck doting over their children. The essence of "Dancing With The Stars" is watching a star (I use that term loosely) put in the hard work required to learn something new. The appeal of Harry Potter lies in the protagonist's honor and heroism. And the staggeringly popular YouTube clip of the angry professor has no nudity, crudity or stupid pet tricks -- it's about a professor un-hesitantly standing up for the integrity of his classroom.
People care about their families. They respect integrity. They love innovation. All these values are wrapped up in sustainability. Five years ago, I was displaying our Prius at an Earth Day exposition at NC State University. I quickly learned the best way to interest engineering students was to explain the car's regenerative breaking. Once engaged with the intelligence of the technology, they were interested in its good-for-the-planet benefits. As a global abstraction, sustainability is a difficult sell. This is not because people are selfish, but because their concerns are closer to home. People are quickly engaged when you explain sustainability in terms of their children's future. That's common ground. For better and for worse, evolution has made qualities such as empathy, nurturing and conformity more adaptive than leadership. So sales pitches that ask people to do what no one else is doing tend to fall on deaf ears (* Yes, you smarties out there, there ARE indeed leadership brands that need to be marketed this way -- but sustainability needs to be a mass brand). Why buy carbon offsets or avoid flying when it feels like you're the only one? However, when sustainable actions are conveyed in the context of family or helping others, audiences are much more likely to respond. Consider the tremendous response to immediate human crises like the Asian Tsunami and Katrina -- as contrasted to the more tepid response to the Apollo Alliance.
One of my favorite frontiers of common ground is self-expression. Generation X, Y and baby boomers ALL highly value individuality (individuality is now expressed through an ironic kind of conformity, but that's a post for another day). Tattoos, blogs, cell phone skins, ipod cozies, facial piercing and Cafe Press society are all examples of the ways that people show off their individuality. One of the best ways to build a bring-your-own culture in our disposable society is to emphasize the forums for individual expression offered by reusable mugs, water jugs and napkin bandanas.
In addition to meeting the market on common ground, it's important to make it easier for people to step over to your territory by "unpacking" your terminology. One reason that fair trade coffee has taken off is that the term "fair trade" needs little unpacking -- fairness is a universal value. Everyone supports the general idea of a fair trade. If item A is marked fair trade, and item B is not, and there is no appreciable price or quality difference, people will almost always choose item A. If your product is excellent, parity-priced, and branded well -- fair trade becomes not just the right thing to do, but a core competitive advantage. That's the power of branding products with a higher agenda. If you can create a brand with high quality and personality appeal that's also good for the world, you end up with an offer that's difficult to refuse. The implicit value of fair trade is the exception to the rule. As an idea and as a language, "sustainability" requires substantial unpacking. Ditto for "carbon offsets," "renewable energy credits," organic fabrics, FSC-certification, and alternate materials such as bamboo and hemp. In war, knowing your enemy is a key to victory. In marketing, it's about understanding and respecting your customers.
This post is the second of 5 focusing on the marketing advantages of businesses that care as much about the planet as profits. The first post addressed the need for sustainable businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors, and following posts will address Credibility and Authenticity; Being More Than Green; and Theory and Practice.
Jerry Stifelman is founder and creative director of The Change, a brand-strategy and design agency that works exclusively with companies and organizations that make the world more sustainable, equitable or authentic.
[Disclosure: This guest post was arranged through TreeHugger writer Sami Grover, who also works for The Change as the company's Director of Sustainability and Media Liaison]