These 19 contiguous areas show roughly what would be a reasonable responsibility for various parts of the world.The large square in the saharan desert (1/4 of the overall 2030 required area) would power all of Europe and North Africa. Though large, it is still 18 times less the total area of the desert.

There are plenty of schools out there with green practices among their goals, but a new school in Bali will be entrepreneurially green from top to bottom:

• The Green School in Bali boasts a working organic chocolate factory, aquaculture ponds, organic vegetable gardens, edible mazes and perma-cultural gardens all located on a campus built entirely of low-impact and environmentally conscious materials. The Green School is open to preschool through eight grade level children from all over the world, with tuitions ranging from roughly USD 4,000 to USD 9,000 per year.

• To stick with kids: how about green educational toys? Doesn’t sound fun? Check out the Power House by Thames & Kosmos, a USD 149.95 miniature (working) green house with solar panels, a wind turbine and a desalinization system. The kit’s aim: teach children what it’s like to live off the grid, and get them (and their parents) to “consider a life without fossil fuel.” To make the experience more realistic, the user manual incorporates a storyline about high-tech pioneers inhabiting a small island who must make use of limited resources to survive. The 70 experiments and 20 building projects that form part of the kit mimic the tasks the kit’s fictional pioneers must perform. Expect many new toys to have a green slant, not only in the materials they’re made of (or being solar-powered, for that matter) but with a green purpose, too.

ECO-EMBEDDED, which we first highlighted last summer, could also have been dubbed ECO-PEACE-OF-MIND:

In fact, the regulation part of ECO-EMBEDDED has already been called the ‘fourth R’, adding to the three golden rules for individuals keen on a more sustainable lifestyle: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

For a full overview, check out last year’s briefing, then keep an eye out for an avalanche of new regulation, whether it’s the EU demanding uniform phone chargers, or the Vancouver City Council decreeing the highest green standards for private sector development in North America, or California getting the green light to impose stricter limits on auto emissions. Regulation is one of the main reasons why ECO-BOUNTY will continue to build, recession or otherwise.

This is a fun one for your product/service/experience development team: come up with green innovations that are truly superior—not just eco-friendlier, but better-looking and cheaper than incumbent offerings. Like:

• Luna Road produces and installs a range of LED based road lighting with the aim of replacing traditional reflective “cat’s eyes”. Luna Road lights don’t have to rely on a car’s headlamps for reflected illumination, which means they provide drivers with visibility for miles ahead. The solar-powered lights offer 12 hours of after-dark lane lighting from 8 hours of daylight charging
• Philips (who by the way claim that 25% of their total sales now comes from green products) has introduced an ecological lighting concept called the Light Blossom. The Light Blossom collects energy and monitors light emissions differently in its ‘day’ and ‘night’ modes: at night the LEDs beam light only when and where needed through proximity-sensing technology, and during the day the Light Blossom imitates a real flower with petals that open toward (and follow) the sun, storing solar energy. The Light Blossom can also function as a wind turbine.

We’ll do better than that! We’ll show you a green business opportunity that helps create your own economic freedom, allowing you to own and manage your own business.

You probably searched the word “ecopreneur” in Google and arrived here. What is an ecopreneur you may ask? Well its a combination of an entrepreneur and someone who uses these skills protecting the environment and planet. We present green business opportunities of interest to potential ecopreneurs such as the Water Rhapsody Green Business Opportunity. With 15 years experience and more than 3000 water conservation systems installed in South Africa, Water Rhapsody are expanding and looking for ecopreneurs. To reply directly to this opportunity go to Water Rhapsody Green Business Opportunity

Matching our recent GENERATION G trend with all things eco is a no-brainer. GENERATION G (that’s G for generosity) captures the growing importance of generosity as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy — which has them longing more than ever for institutions that care—the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate. For many, sharing a passion and consequently receiving recognition has replaced ‘taking’ as their status symbol of choice. Businesses should follow this societal and behavioral shift, as much it may oppose their age-old devotion to me, myself and I.

Here are some smart innovations by brands that manage to be generous to both their customers and the environment:

For an extensive overview of the new wave of perks, we’ll refer you to our October 2008 briefing, in which we defined PERKONOMICS as follows:

As outlined in our October 2008 briefing, one of the most visible perks right now is dedicated—if not free parking—for hybrid cars, but how about free charging, too?

• Through a pilot program, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport now offers six prime parking spaces for electric vehicles. The green-striped spots—with power sockets—are located on the garage’s fifth floor and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Standard parking rates apply, but the electricity is free.

FREE LOVE, or the art of giving stuff to consumers, is an enduring trend. For a lengthy FREE LOVE overview, please read the full briefing (published in March 2008). Here’s an eco-twist we like:

• Freegreen is a website that offers free, customizable green house plans in both traditional and modern styles. The service relies on paid placement from product manufacturers, but it takes pains to be transparent about the products it displays, offering users ratings from established third-party green certification programs such as LEED and NAHB and research performance data through its own energy modeling reports.

Reward schemes will forever be a favorite of both producers and consumers. Here are some green takes:

• Philadelphia-based RecycleBank enables households to earn RecycleBank Dollars, redeemable for discount coupons at Whole Foods, RiteAid, Starbucks and participating local companies just by leaving their recyclables out to be collected. RecycleBank containers are embedded with identifying barcodes which collection trucks scan to track how much each household is recycling; the more customers recycle, the more they earn in RecycleBank dollars—up to the equivalent of USD 35 per month.
• Currently operating in eight regions in the US, NuRide allows its 40,000 users to earn up to USD 350 per year in rewards exchangeable for retailer discounts, gift cards, and tickets to shows and attractions just by sharing rides and otherwise limiting their car use. Because registered carpoolers specify their trip origin, destination, travel preferences and vehicle information; sponsors are able to target highly specific sets of consumers, both nationally and locally.

Basically, once companies and consumers can no longer get away with anything less than totally offsetting their negative impact on the environment—and this will happen sooner rather than later—the only way to stand out, to gain any kind of respect in the eco-sphere, will be to go the extra mile and be over-generous. From planting more trees than is strictly required, to cleaning up not only your own mess, but someone else’s, too.

This is what we said in an earlier briefing:

Count on being sustainable or being carbon neutral to soon be just the starting point, not the end goal. So think about how your brand can actually boost the environment instead of just limiting damage. Call it PR or responsibility or both. As long as you go out of your way to be generous, everyone wins.

See the ECO-BOOSTERS section in our ECO-ICONIC briefing for examples.

ECO-FEEDERS are small, sometimes tiny, new businesses and services that feed (off) big ECO players. Here’s an example that sums up this sub-trend in a nutshell:

• Luscious Garage is the first woman-owned and operated autoshop in San Francisco dedicated to servicing hybrids with a specialty in converting them to all-electrical plug-ins. Since opening in 2007 this unorthodox auto garage has attracted customers seeking a more friendly car repair experience with the garage’s laid back décor featuring plants and books. So far, the vast majority of customers have been Prius owners, but Luscious Garage is planning to diversify beyond hybrids in order to increase the company’s customer base. Which goes to show that ECO-FEEDER businesses may never be the next HUGE thing but they’re sure fun to start up if you’re the niche/long-tail entrepreneurial type.