After being a tramp on my own, we finally started a true agency on sustainable innovation: Studio Spark

2011: Tweeduizend en elf. Het ziet eruit als een jaartal op magere beentjes, maar als je't even anders bekijkt, heeft een elf wel vleugels. Daar willen wij alvast van uitgaan, want 2011 wordt de start van ons kersverse bureau Studio Spark.

Studio Spark is het nieuwe bureau van Bart Jansen, Tom Duhoux en Stefaan Vandist waarmee we organisaties helpen hun duurzame innovaties te ontwikkelen en te vermarkten. We zijn alvast gestart met leuke projecten in onder meer de vakantie-, landbouw-, evenementen-, verf- en retailsector. We hebben alledrie een heel ander pad bewandeld de afgelopen jaren, maar het was onze gemeenschappelijke visie rond duurzaamheid die ons heeft samengebracht onder één dak.

Om ons bureau en onze aanpak te leren kennen, neem gerust een kijkje op onze kraaknieuwe website: www.studiospark.eu

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Studio Spark develops and markets sustainable innovations together with its clients. We don't see sustainability as a field full of restrictions, but as an opportunity for innovation, differentiation and positive growth. We work from an integrated and triple point of view: ecology, economy and buyology. From now on, you will find Stefaan Vandist bloggin on www.studiospark.eu

Sustainability as opportunity for innovation in tourism

Studio Spark Sustainable Innovation in tourism

View more presentations from StefaanVandist.

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' ; - )

Driving the Tesla Roadster

Yesterday after a working meeting at Nike, we got the chance to have a little test drive with the Tesla Roadster, the electric car that is admired in Hollywood and Silicon Valley. This little rocket pioneers the transition to EV driving and goes from 0 to 100 km in less then 4 seconds. Their would be eight of them in Belgium so far. Thanks again Serge for giving us the occasion to drive your little orange motherfucker! It is great to experience this little frontrunner of a new era.

Our business game on sustainable business innovation 'play-it-forward' in DE TIJD

Yesterday, 'De Tijd' dedicated a full report (11 pages!) on sustainability in its newspaper. It is a mix of articles on new eco-services, policies, practices, CSR-reporting, and a quick tour on what's happening on sustainability in the Belgian Business Community.

Things like CSR, energy-efficiency, carbon footprinting, Lifecycle analysis and fairtrade are instruments that a lot of professionals start to adopt today, and are familiar with.

I'm very happy that De Tijd also provided a lot of attention to our Business Game "play-it-forward" that does not starts from a 'responsability' point of view, but which is more like a creative and innovation approach. The main idea behind the business game is that you can create sustainability by improving and altering your business model.

On top of that: it is a game. That means that people discover the power of business model innovation in an intuitive, creative and competitive way. People easily get rid of barriers like departmental thinking, or keeping attached to business conventions.

More to be found on the business game here: www.businessmodeldesign.be

Taste the Waste

Taste the Waste - Trailer from bosrtv on Vimeo.

Seems to be a promising documentary that will be shown at the Dutch National television: NED2, 16th of October; 9u30 and 17th of october, 23u00. When it comes to food spill, the movie shows us the astonishing numbers, the problems, the developments and possible solutions.

Dutch documentaries are often hurricanes. This reminds me of 'here comes the sun', or 'waste equals food' (Tegenlicht/ VPRO), and what revolution they were for the cradle-to-cradle awareness in Holland, and how they kickstarted a new way of thinking.

More to be found at the documentaries website: tastethewaste.nl/

TV documentary on strategic philantrophy

Terzake: Liefdadigheid is big business

Malcolm Gladwell on how to create happiness

Based on a story on spaghetti saus... Nice story with a good point!