Featured Archives - Page 2 of 5

What’s All the Biz Buzz about the Dolls with No Makeup?

There is no shortage of articles, books and videos about 'How to Go Viral," but what do you do when your little hobby turns into a an instant viral sensation? Sonia, from Tasmania, loved dolls as a kid and now, as an adult, discovered the pleasure of recycling old, discarded dolls and giving them a natural makeover. In that fertile soil of playful creativity and simple frugality, a seedling of a company grew. Tree Change Dolls had only 12 dolls, but a few clever photos and a healthy dose of shares resulted in a viral forest. Sonia started out by de-glamourizing some used Bratz dolls (removed their makeup) and turned to her knitting genius mother to create some the simple custom fashions. This little kitchen table hobby soon turned into an internet maelstrom of cheers for this lone mum from down-under who accomplished what the big dollmakers like MGA Entertainment (makers of the hyper-sexualized Bratz dolls) seem to have missed. Girls love dolls that actually look like real p…

IKEA Purchases New Wind Farm…Assembly Instructions Blow Away

November 18, 2014- The IKEA Group announced today that it had purchased it's second wind farm in the United States from Apex Clean Energy: a 165-megawatt wind farm in Cameron County, Texas. This represents the single largest renewable energy investment made by the IKEA Group globally to date. The wind farm will contribute significantly to the IKEA Group 2020 goal of producing as much renewable energy as the total energy the company consumes globally. The Cameron Wind farm is expected to be fully operational in late 2015. Earlier this year IKEA Group announced its first U.S. wind farm purchase located in Hoopeston, Illinois. The Cameron Wind farm will be more than one-and-a-half times the size of the Hoopeston project. IKEA Group has now committed to own and operate 279 wind turbines in nine countries, and will invest a total of $1.9 billion[2] in wind and solar power up to the end of 2015. IKEA has also taken steps to further the development of a low-c…

This Bus is Powered by Your Waste. Holy Sh*t!

New York City was first with it’s No-Idling laws, but the UK, it seems, won’t settle for #2. Unless of course it’s the #2 (Human waste) that just happens to be fueling the first-of-its-kind city bus. The 40-seater Bio-Bus runs on fuel generated from treated sewage and food waste and helps improve urban air quality as it produces fewer emissions than traditional diesel engines. The bus can travel up to 200 miles on a full tank of gas generated at Bristol sewage treatment works – a plant run by GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water. Up to 10,000 passengers are expected to travel on the Bio-Bus each month. It’s not petrol, bio-diesel or natural gas. It’s Biomethane, and can even be used to power up to 8,500 homes, and although the bus's graphics seem to imply it’s a moving shitter, the fuel is actually a product of Bristol sewage treatment, which treats around 75 million cubic meters of sewage waste and 35,000 tons of food waste through a process known as anaerobic digestio…

The Starfish are Melting, the Starfish are Melting!

By Amanda Crater for GreenBusinesses.com (watch video below) This can't be good. News broke this week about a mysterious virus affecting millions of starfish along the West Coast from Mexico to Alaska. "Sea Star Wasting Syndrome" has been decimating more than 20 species of starfish for about a year, and scientists this week discovered the culprit which has been widely reported on. Marine biology researchers investigating the virus linked to the “wasting” deaths of countless starfish are looking at what role environmental causes might play in the massive die-off. Scientists have identified the specific virus responsible for the ongoing devastation of starfish along the Pacific Coast of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, as reported by BoingBoing.net. The Seattle Times did an in-depth report that said, "[I]t remains unclear if the pathogen’s current deadly spread is part of a complex natural cycle — or whether blame for this massive die-off is linked in some way to …

Waterless Wash: Levi Strauss’ Innovative Tactic Yields Much Success

By Amanda Crater Sometimes the best ideas sound the silliest at first, but companies who embrace creative solutions to complex problems often have the greatest success. In this interview with Paul Dillinger, VP of Product Design and Innovation for Levi Strauss & Co. (@LeviStraussCo), Nick Aster of Triple Pundit (@TriplePundit) discusses the innovative approach that Levi's has been known to take when incorporating sustainability into their business practices. Filmed at the SXSW Eco-Conference (SXSWeco.com) in Austin, Texas last month, Aster poses the question, "how can creativity be a part of sustainability?" Citing his experience working with complex problems involving numerous committees, Dillinger reveals that often the solution can be found in the "creative unknown." An example he refers to involves the issue of the wash of the company's jeans. The "water-less" rinse program involved a "counterintuitive inversion of the meaning of wash," which resulted in taking th…

U.S. Allows Fracking in George Washington National Forest

By Amanda Crater - Just as George Washington once swung an ax into his own father's beloved cherry tree, the United States federal government just drove a drill into the heart of its national park system by approving a federal management plan that will allow fracking to occur in parts of the George Washington National Forest - the nation's largest national forest on the East Coast. The controversial practice is vehemently opposed by both environmentalists and Virginia's governor Terry McAuliffe, but fracking will be allowed thanks to the new plan passed Tuesday November 14, 2014 over their objections. It seems fitting that this symbolic move applies to a national park named after a president whose legacy includes taking an ax to his own garden in a masochist act of self sabotage - good fracking job America on this one too. Just as elementary school text books commend dear George for fessing up to his father, politicians and lobbyists are applauding themselves for coming up …