Ecopreneurist

You hear so much about people striving to live a greener, more sustainable life. You may at times wonder, who else is doing it, and is all that happy talk translating into real world results?

Three friends decided to find out. As they put it,

Mandy, Ryan and Brady are ‘bikepacking’ 12,000 miles to the East Coast and back to California, using solar-powered electronics and leg-powered bicycles.  The result is a feature-length documentary film that will present a realistic experience of seeking out and living in sustainable community.

Started October 2008 and 3800 miles into it as of this writing (with 209 PB&J’s consumed if you must know) they have been filming and Twittering their way across to country, giving a peek into what it looks, feels, and works like to live in sustainable, intentional community, the end result being a film called Within Reach.

It’s clear that these people are 21st century environmentalists – they don’t shun businesses supporting their venture, and in fact proudly list their sponsors on the front page, all of which bear relevance with what they’re doing. This project is Creative Commons licensed, and they are a non profit, allowing for people to support their journey and the making of it into a film afterwords.

So what have they found?

Read the rest of this entry »

June 5th is United Nations World Environment Day.  The U.N. Environment Programme has setup a twitter campaign called ‘twitter for trees’.  All you have to do is ‘follow’ http://twitter.com/unepandyou and they will plant a tree.  The goal is to get 100,000 followers by June 5th.   That plants 100,000 trees, so lets get started!

If you’d like to promote the campaign, feel free to tweet:

Please RT: follow @UNEPandYou and a tree gets planted for free.  Plant extra trees for $1 via http://www.mokugift.com

Mokugift is an official partner of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Image source: United Nation Environment Programme

By contributing guest author Ida Cheinman, Principal and Creative Director of Substance 151, a strategic design agency for Green Printer’s “Design Goes Green” series.

We live in a time when “sustainability” is topping the buzzword charts and a wave of greenwashing is flooding the mainstream. We live in a time of intense competition, gloomy economic forecasts and rapidly disappearing marketing budgets, but also in a time when more and more companies and organizations strive to uphold higher environmental and social values, making the shift to the triple bottom line economic model. Sustainability and social responsibility are the forces that drive many of today’s business decisions; they also change the way organizations re-think their branding and marketing strategies. As marketers and business leaders, we are faced with the challenge of finding differentiation by creating empowering and memorable brand experiences for our audiences in the increasingly crowded sustainable marketplace.

So, What are the rules? Read the rest of this entry »

Update: We’re still using the 8500 in our office, months later. The next green claims we’ll be testing are all about office furniture. It’s not always easy to find certified sustainably-produced furniture at good prices, so what else can be done? We’ll be testing furniture designs that use fewer materials for the same functionality — stay tuned.

Original post:

Last month, Hewlett Packard offered to let us (and many other bloggers) try out their new wireless all-in-one, the OfficeJet Pro 8500.

One caveat: I don’t do many reviews of technology products with lots of features, so if that’s what you’re looking for, there are many in-depth reviews out there for this new model, as well as previous posts by Ecopreneurist Editor Reenita Malhorita, here and here.

Ecopreneurist was chosen to weigh in because HP believes that this new model provides efficiency advantages over even low-grade laser printers, which I originally found hard to believe. I haven’t done a ton of searching to make a technical comparison, but after about a month of use, I’m not sure how that claim is justified, except that color lasers tend to be expensive, bulky, and have less-than-all-around functionality.

HP’s press people also told us “…in Hewlett Packard’s eyes, cost cutting is one of the printer’s best value propositions.” Based on a quick search of printer cartridge prices, I’m not sure how this claim pans out, unless you’re making the argument that one could cut costs by not buying a standalone piece of equipment for each of the printer’s functions, and just buying the Officejet Pro 8500 instead. I suspect, unfortunately, that this is the subtext below the claim, which would seem pretty disappointing from a PR standpoint, given that we’re in 2009, and all-in-ones have existed for a long time.

However, despite shaky PR claims, one thing’s for sure: this all-in-one really is, and all of those features are useable, which I can’t say for all of the all-in-ones I’ve used previously, even from HP.

I’ve definitely seen better standalone scanners, and faster (even inkjet) printers, but the 8500 does do all of the jobs it advertises. Also, the wireless functionality is some of the best I’ve seen in a printer. Maybe it’s just me, but other printers I’ve tried to set up with wireless functionality have either taken forever to get working, or failed outright to work wire-free. This one was easy, on both Mac and PC.

Overall, the Officejet Pro 8500 wouldn’t make a bad choice if a) you could afford it, b) it was the only piece of equipment you could fit in your home office, and c) wireless printing would make it easier for your home networking setup. I’m just not sure there’s a case to be made that it’s any greener than any other similar solution.

Special Offer for Ecopreneurist Readers

Now for the good news. If you are interested in possibly purchasing one of these printers, HP has arranged a special offer for Ecopreneurist  readers to save 20% ($80) on the new HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One.

Click here for the coupon code and terms and conditions. Visit here for more product information. 

(Note: you may be able to find better deals)

EcoAlign, the group that brought you the research that found that consumers pay attention to the ENERGY STAR label, just released their third report of the Project Energy Code series, Cracking the Green Code. This report, like other EcoAlign research is a provocative and thought-provoking exploration of the “causes and consequences of effective communications in the energy and environmental space.”

The report starts by saying that marketers “are cracking their proverbial heads open trying to figure out new ways to make green behaviors more enticing to the masses.”  While I’m not so sure marketers are trying to make behaviors more enticing (aren’t we trying to make our products and services more enticing to consumers who behave in a relatively predictable way….), I do find consumer reports of “greenness” and the paradoxically non-green behaviors they exhibit perplexing; hence, the “green gap.”  But, in this report EcoAlign suggests that green messaging can be effective for about 75% of the US Population.

In this study, EcoAlign (many of whose clients are utilities) classified utility consumers in four groups and then analyzed three (the forth group was not sufficiently represented in the research group.) Although the report focuses on utility consumers, it seems reasonable to assume the analysis can be extended to all consumers: 

1. The Individualistic Consumer (estimated 30% of U.S. population). These are consumers who are self-centered and primarily concerned with the financial bottom-line.  It is suggested that no-nonsense fiscally responsible products and services that provide a sense of control over energy and energy-related financial expenditures (and all green consumer behavior?) is likely to get their attention if properly messaged. Read the rest of this entry »

Green Printer speaks with Sigrid Albert, Principal and Art Director of StepUp Communications, a company that focuses on creative services for internal communications.

A post by contributing writer Melissa Chungfat.

Some of your clients integrate sustainability in their business. What advice would you give to green start-up businesses in terms of identity and design?

Having a clear vision and direction for your company is the first step. From there, you can create your visual identity. Green businesses already have clear values to communicate, which makes it easier to design for them. Their visual identity should reflect what the business does and the best thing is for them to follow through with their promise. Be clear about what your strengths are and the direction your business is going, and designers can help with that process. Read the rest of this entry »

There can be no greater thrill in the world than watching your hard work pay off in the form of a successful green business venture.  But how to learn about the world of running a small green business before simply launching in?  Try doing a green internship.  The connections will be tremendous, the learning opportunities varied and interesting, and the work gratifying.

Companies looking for highly skilled, motivated and energetic interns may find volunteers coming out of the woodwork if they are in a green industry and can help train the next generation of ecopreneurs. Read the rest of this entry »

So often these days you hear about green and greening cleaning products. But beyond the trendiness and this vague notion of it being “better for the planet,” most of the time people don’t know how that’s so and why it matters.

The founders of Ecostore, a New Zealand based company, now with an American division based in Michigan, saw quite directly why using the usual cleaning products has an impact: They lived on a eco village where each of them was responsible for dealing with their waste water. When it didn’t just go down the pipe, out of sight, out of mind, but they directly saw the effect it was having on their pristine waterways, the need was apparent and the incentive there to do something about it.

Greater visibility of the impact of your choices is something I think many more people should experience. People generally aren’t purposely irresponsible in their choices, they just don’t know any better because of “invisible” impacts.

They set about finding people to help them create plant based, toxins free cleaners that would still be as effective as the conventional options, minus the petroleum and synthetics based ingredients that can have a negative effect both on the environment and the people that use them. Being rapidly biodegradable was also a priority.

One might think that the main people buying this were more green skewed people. But according to Ecostore,

“…testimonials from other parents (many of whom were unaware of the benefits of eco-friendly products) began to pour in with wonderful news of their children’s allergies and eczema clearing up. Many noted that any respiratory issues were healing, and many lingering chronic conditions were disappearing.”

Read the rest of this entry »

A Green Printer ‘Design Goes Green’ dispatch.

A contributing post by Deb Ozarko, Director of Creative Services for Clearly Green Design, an Ottawa, Canada based visual communications firm.

There is no escaping the dark news about today’s current economic situation. Regardless, there are ways for us to all survive – and thrive – simply by asking ourselves one question: Want or Need?

In a planet faced with the tragic fallout from the over consumptive patterns of typical North American society, an economic crisis may just what we need to show us the true cost of our spending habits.  It would not hurt us a bit to do less spending on frivolous – and often environmentally damaging items, and pay more attention to consumer or donor messaging so we can begin to develop an overall higher eco-consciousness. Read the rest of this entry »

By Contributing Writer Melissa Chungfat | Part of Green Printer’s ‘Design Goes Green’ dispatch.

Thanks to blogs, websites, Facebook, and the ever-growing list of social media tools, people have the ability and power to educate themselves about anything they please. It is harder for companies to get away with lies about their products and misleading messages. People can easily look up “greenwashing” or “what is an organic product?” in a search engine and in a matter of seconds, they have a list of resources that cuts through the PR.

So how can companies who are taking sincere environmental initiatives market themselves credibly? Read the rest of this entry »