Green & Sustainable Business Ventures: For Entrepreneurs & Investors
The Virgin Group of companies is known to be a leader with its sustainability efforts and now its media company announced its latest initiative to reuse more of its internal paper use. Virgin Media is working with its stationary supplier, Banner (one of the largest distributors of copier paper in the UK) to reduce its use of virgin paper using a ‘closed-loop’ system. Here is how they manage their entire paper use.
Today, Lighting Science Group and Dixon Technologies announced one of their first joint products: A high-performance, omnidirectional 60-watt equivalent A19 LED bulb that retails for under $15. At a price point below $15, the payback period from electricity savings over a traditional incandescent bulb is only 8 months.
How easy is it to invent something? Maybe not that hard, but how easy is it to make it count. Really hard. Innovation is the single most important thing that sets us apart as a species, yet our society itself can be the hardest roadblock for innovative solutions to the toughest challenges we face today.
A firm called Quirky is trying to change all that! Quirky is a crowd-sourced and an open innovation platform that encourages creative thinking and solutions. Now after launching super successful products and boasting a community of nearly 60,000 innovators, Quirky is going to debut at a television near you. *Drumroll*
All of this creative craziness is going to be showcased in The Sundance Channel’s new show Quirky that premiers today August 30th at 10 pm.
The hugely popular Capital Bikeshare or CaBi as locals call it, has completed more than one of operation and is riding high on its success in DC and adjoining suburbs.
CaBi was born as SmartBike DC in August 2008, when the District of Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to launch a bikesharing system. At first, SmartBike D.C. offered 120 bikes at 10 stations in downtown D.C. and the Center City. Approximately 1,600 people joined SmartBike D.C. during its 2 years of operation. Meanwhile, Arlington County, VA was working on its own plans for a bikesharing system. Together, Arlington and the District reviewed proposals and selected an operator for a new bikesharing system in May 2010. The two jurisdictions worked closely to develop Capital Bikeshare and are proud to offer a greatly expanded regional service of over 1,100 bikes and 114 stations.
Most people know that there is nothing really natural about genetically modified organisms (GMO). Food giant ConAgra is in “hot oil” over claims that their line of cooking oils with GMO is labelled “all natural”. This suit has led to the bigger question mark and ongoing debate over food labeling and how consumers are misled on advertisement claims. Greenwashing claims on food labels are very prevalent making it very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. GMO products are suspicious at best with no proven studies that they pose no health risks with the debate is still strong on whether they harm human health.
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