Hippy Shopper

An nice alternative for Treehugger if you are looking for an update of sustainable products: Hippy Shopping

Ethos Water bought by Starbucks

Ethos Water comes in a tasteful bottle with a bold claim on the front: "Helping children get clean water." This refers to the fact that 5 cents of every $1.80 (or so) bottle purchased is put toward water projects in underdeveloped regions. The company has been recently purchased by Starbucks.

Ethos official site
The New York Times on Ethos
Interview to Founders at Influx

2nd Hand Electronics: Illigal!

From April 1st 2006, ALL electronic products sold in Japan before 2001 will be prohibited from the 2nd hand market. The Japanese government is studying this option since the Japanese electronics industry proposed to apply the same kind of law already applicable to cars. What may be the environmental consequences? Well, the already short lifespan of electronics will be even shorter and the amount of electronic waste will increase. We’ll keep a close eye to this issue.

Via Akihabaranews.com

Useful Resources

Massive Change an itinerant exhibition by Bruce Mau about the design of the world. The exhibition is campaigned by a book and a site reviewing global trends and developments in mobility, energy, information, market, materials, manufacturing, military, and wealth.
The site is a great source of information in the format of videos and stories.

Massive Change in Action
Bruce Mau Design

PC for the Poor: Which design will win?

It's easy to list the benefits of bringing inexpensive computers to the billions of people who live in rural villages and urban centers in the developing world.
Designing machines that are resilient, powerful and cheap enough to reach those not yet online, though, has proven a lot tougher than expected. India's Simputer, an inexpensive handheld, flopped. Brazil has worked for years on a Linux PC for the poor, to no avail.
Recently, some new ideas have come to the forefront. Here's a quick rundown of their pros and cons.

The other 6 Billion People

More Base-of-the-Pyramid by large electronics? Check how is HP brainstorming about the issue. The site reads: Hewlett Packard hosted DesignAbout, The Other Six Billion People in Palo Alto, Calif., a stone's throw from Hewlett Packard's world headquarters and smack in the middle of Silicon Valley. Sam Lucente, IDSA, the director of brand, design and experience at Hewlett Packard, and Ami Mehta, HP's emerging-markets experience architect, led the event. Designers from across the globe and from multiple design industries gathered with anticipation for what they would learn about the world's other 6 billion people and the new methods and processes they could develop when designing for this underserved group.

Dowload the reports from the different sessions

1. Design for the Individual (PDF 155kb)
2. Design for the Masses (PDF 118kb)
3. Design with the Cultural Perspective (PDF 148kb)
4. Design for the Flat World(PDF 120kb)

Business In Development Student Competition

The BiD Challenge student award stimulates students to come up with a business plan for poverty reduction and profit in a developing country. It gives you as a student an extra incentive to participate. Young people are innovative, flexible, energetic, sociable, and knowledgeable about new trends and technologies.. all characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.

Students all over the world are eligible for the special BiD Student Award of €10.000 ! The award challenges students to make poverty reduction their business.