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 [...]

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 [...]

Another development that beautifully marries sustainability with long-term savings: eco-conscious and recession-wary consumers buying sturdier stuff. Be inspired by: Welsh clothing brand Howies offers a line of super-durable clothing called Howies’ Hand-Me-Down that features jackets, backpacks and messenger bags designed specifically to last for 10 or more years. The company crafts its products painstakingly and [...]

Info is power, power means money, and so on. Keep an eye out for a myriad of green intelligence services that will help consumers detect, understand, milk or unmask the eco-consequences of companies and their own behavior. ECO-METERING is where ECO-FRUGAL and ECO-STATUS meet. Expect thrifty, status-seeking consumers to embrace a growing crop of devices [...]

What’s your Baacode? Here’s how we defined the STATUS STORIES trend: As more brands (have to) go niche and therefore tell stories that aren’t known to the masses, and as experiences and non-consumption-related expenditures take over from physical (and more visible) status symbols, consumers will increasingly have to tell each other stories to achieve a [...]

Around the world, being eco-conscious has become a status symbol for consumers, partly replacing traditional status symbols that are now associated with pollution, waste and excess. Two ECO-STATUS developments to watch: ECO-ICONIC (create an eye-catching green brand/product, advertise the hell out of it and make it very recognizable to the masses, which in turn makes [...]

With the recession deepening, count on all things ‘eco’ to be repositioned from ‘worthy but expensive’ to ‘cheap and, oh yes, worthy’. On the one hand, cash-strapped consumers are going out of their way to save money on energy bills, motorized transport and other waste-prone, eco-unfriendly activities.* While the environment may not be their first [...]

Retrenchment. Sometimes we just don’t see it coming. It can arrive like a shattering blow, destroying the world as we know it. But it can also be an opportunity of a lifetime – the catalyst that ignites us to follow our dreams, our passions, however hard that may be. Here follows a video I found [...]