Green Briefs header image

Entries Tagged as 'Sustainable Businesses'

How green is your media?

December 16th, 2008 · No Comments

You’ve printed your brochure on 100% post-consumer recycled stock. Your factory buys energy from a renewable supplier. Your fleet runs on biodiesel sourced from oil that was only used to fry organic, locally-grown potatoes. Now it’s time to do your media plan. This is no time to hang up your green values, but where do [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Green Points of View · Printing · Production · Research · Strategic Alliances · Sustainable Businesses

Can we save recycling with marketing?

December 5th, 2008 · No Comments

The global financial meltdown has hit the green movement hard, right here in our back yard. Everything that goes into your blue box for recycling is sold to mills, usually offshore, who process it and sell it to the factories that make the cheap consumer goods we love. This works well when commodity prices and [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Environment · Green Points of View · Green Politics · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Products

French electric car drivers plug in for free. Alors!

October 19th, 2008 · 2 Comments

SNCF, France’s national railway, and their parking subsidiary, Effia, have announced a great new deal for electric car drivers. When they park to take the train, they can plug in and recharge for free.
This represents a level of cross-platform eco marketing we haven’t yet seen in North America, stuck as we are with Transport Canada [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Green Politics · Green in Europe · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle · Sustainable Products

All the drinking, abuse and frustration of golf… without the carbon footprint. (Or the long walk)

October 3rd, 2008 · No Comments

On a recent Unicycle Creative business trip to Toronto, I joined some industry colleagues for a round of golf. Sort of. As we were all pressed for time, we elected to try Inner Golf, a golf simulator located in the warehouses of the King West Village area.
Designed for the dedicated golfer who wants to keep [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle · Sustainable Products

The Green Pen can be mighty, but not without the word.

September 13th, 2008 · No Comments

There’s something very personal about a pen. It’s what you use to sign your name. Get used to your favorite one and you’ll search the whole house for it, even if a tacky logo mug full of crappy ballpoints sits within easy reach. That’s why from a green marketing perspective, it’s critical to tell the [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle · Sustainable Products

Inhance Mutual Funds takes their show to YouTube, with a lesson for all.

July 10th, 2008 · No Comments

Thinking about creating a corporate video to post on YouTube? Think ahead and you’ll thank yourself later.
In 2007, Unicycle Creative produced a video presentation for Inhance Mutual Funds – a DVD called Return on Responsibility™, that featured Dr. Marc Garneau (Canada’s first main in space) highlighting the beauty and fragility of our earth as seen [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Environment · Green Points of View · Production · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Products · Unicycle Case Studies

Sustainable Monterey by Bike

June 10th, 2008 · No Comments

As my sustainable road trip continues, I find myself with a day to ride around Monterey. This town has some visible signs of sustainability, with low-mow lawns and a bike trail that runs along the coast. This contrasts the 4-lane feeder highways that cris-cross through town cruelly undermining the Cannery Row atmeosphere. My rented bike, [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Stories from The Road · Sustainable Brands 08 Road Trip · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle

The Good, The Swag, and The Ugly.

June 8th, 2008 · 2 Comments

The Sustainable Brands 2008 show was, like the industry it represents, sometimes a contradiction. Here, in no particular order, are my Top-10 observations on both ends of the green scale:

1. Coffee with all the right adjectives. It was nice to see a departure from the ubiquitous generic hotel swill. This selection by Thanksgiving Coffee had [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Conference Session Highlights · Green Points of View · Printing · Production · Stories from The Road · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle · Sustainable Products

The New Urban Miners: Best Buy makes product take-back program pay off.

June 5th, 2008 · No Comments

John Shegerian, Co-founder, Chairman & CEO, Electronic Recyclers International
Tatyana Kjellberg, Manager of Strategic Programs, Product Take-back, Hewlett-Packard
Brenda Mathison, Director of Environmental Affairs, Best Buy 
This presentation took place against the backdrop of a June 2, 2008 press release from Best Buy, announcing an electronics take-back test program being launched in 117 stores.
The session was well-attended, and [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Conference Session Highlights · Sustainable Brands 08 Road Trip · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle

Design for the other 90%

June 5th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Paul Polak, Founder, D-REV
In 2005, The luxury goods market was worth $455 billion.
$7 billion was spent on haircare products alone.
Corporations spent $140 Billion on advertising in the US alone.
Yet, median household net worth rose only 2% in 2 years. Ours is the very pinnacle of expenditure and wealth, yet this is a saturated and mature [...]

[Read more →]

Tags: Conference Session Highlights · Green Politics · Sustainable Brands 08 Road Trip · Sustainable Businesses · Sustainable Lifestyle · Sustainable Products