With so many sources of information on sustainability and green living choices, you’d think it would be easy for you and me to live a greener lifestyle. And yet, how many times have you found yourself out there, doing errands, going out, or traveling, and you have no idea how and where to make greener choices?
3rdWhale is a bridge between talk and action, with an iPhone app that allows you to search for green businesses in proximity to you, plus submit your own finds that aren’t already on there, all listings filtered by 3rd Whale and then rated by users, ala Yelp. An Android version is on its way.
But here’s where it gets interesting: As seen first in Mother Nature Network 3rd Whale are joining forces with Creative Citizen, a hub for crowdsourced, specifically measurable sustainable choices. Each is broken down to how much energy, waste, water, emissions you’ve saved, and in what I think will help it bridge to a broader segment of the population, money. When you have this kind of clearly tangible benefit laid out for you, and it’s on something that you carry with you, action is much for likely.
It’s clear that 3rdWhale intends to be a resource to many points of the sustainability spectrum, as seen in their participation in the upcoming New Venture Exchange, a showcase for green businesses that gives green startups other then the current hot property clean techs a fighting chance for much higher visibility, help, and for one, a custom iPhone app created by 3rdWhale, complete with a strategy how to integrate it into their business model. (By the way, you can still enter, they want a one page executive summary by tomorrow. And you don’t have to be an existing business yet. Do it! Here’s how.)
And in a reflection of the emerging collaborative nature of business, they’ve created a mobile version of Greenpeace’s Tissue Guide, again taking information from being fixed in place to being in the place where you need it.
In what looks to be both educational and fun, they’re currently seeking entrants for the Greenest Person on the Planet contest, in collaboration with National Geographic Channel Canada.
Truly a global contest, they are going to select the top 10 people from 6 major regions of the world, each of them submitting a video statement showing their green lifestyle, and submitting a carbon footprint calculation. Then we all get to see these slices of life, voting for anybody we think should move to the next round.
Finalists are then asked to engage in Random Acts of Green, what I can only imagine. From there, all regional finalists win 10 trees planted by Mokugift, and a most unusual prize: The Defenders of Wildlife will protect a regionally appropriate animal in their name.
The winner of Greenest Person on the Planet gets something unprecedented: 5% of 3rd Whale’s net profits donated to the charity of their choice, a pod of Beluga whales protected in their name, and an iPhone or iPod Touch.
3rd Whale is a great example of a company that gets how to succeed in these times: Connect with strong resources, and be one yourself.
Readers: What other examples have you seen of businesses engaging in a broadly connecting, truly sustainable business model?
