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Claire Attkisson

Live Creative Studio’s 2021 Sustainable Holiday Gift Guide: 17 Eco-Friendly and Ethical Gift Ideas

November 17, 2021 By Claire Attkisson

wish-ornament-sustainable-holiday-gift-guide

The Holiday Season is Here!

Gift-giving is a thoughtful way to inspire new sustainability habits through a product or experience that has a story. In our opinion the best gifts are experiences. Consider first purchasing a (or making your own!) gift certificate to your favorite local spa for an organic facial or massage, a special a weekend away, a picnic and a day hike in nature, a night out at your favorite local restaurant, or homemade cards, crafts, and baked goods made by the kids.

Let’s keep the holidays connected to family and friends, joy and love, and stay away from earth and heart damaging OVER consumption.

When an experience based gift just isn’t quite right, our curated 2021 sustainable gift guide is sure to make your holiday a unique time to pass along new sustainable brands to the ones you love. Here you’ll find great eco-friendly and ethical gift ideas for everyone on your list—even minimalists, self-care lovers, vegans, fashionistas, teens, and kids.

HAPPY GIFTING

1. WIT & WEST | BOTANICAL PERFUME

Wit & West Perfumes is a Colorado based 100% all-natural botanical perfumery with a focus on rare ingredients and unique scents for “those who don’t want to smell like everyone else”. Their perfumes are handcrafted completely in-house in small-batches using only the finest, high-quality 100% natural whole botanicals and naturally derived ingredients as well as custom handmade artisanal tinctures and enfleurage extraits carefully selected and sourced from raw materials including rom their very own garden.

Our Pick: Gardenia ‘Ono. Why We Love It: “The resplendent gardenia propels this soliflore composition. A graceful blend of vanilla and key lime is first perceived before the deliciously sweet combination of gardenia and champaca truly washes over and surrounds. Intimate and rich tonka bean guides this satisfying tropical fragrance as it is softly drawn away into the smoothness of the legendary Mysore sandalwood.”

OUR PICK: GARDENIA ‘ONO

WIT & WEST

Shop | $75

2. GENTLEMAN FARMER | SKIN CARE FOR MEN

Gentleman Farmer is a woman-owned, values-driven men’s grooming and accessories company.

“Our mission is to provide discerning men with effective, clean and sustainably sourced grooming products.”

Their initiatives include: using raw ingredients from responsible farming; packaging products in aluminum and glass and avoiding plastic whenever possible; shipping in 100% cartons; and uniquely strive to work exclusively with vendors and partners who share our values and commitment to sustainability. Additionally, giving back is an important part of our business, and non-profit partners include NRDC, National Young Farmers Coalition, One Tree Planted and Soul Fire Farm, along with others. 

Our pick: Saving Cream Duo. Why We Love It: “More than just a shaving cream: think of it as a luxurious, nourishing treatment for your face. Soothing, hydrating botanicals – including a base of organic Aloe Vera –  leave skin soft and without irritation or nicks, and it provides excellent glide for a smooth, comfortable shave. Fragrance-free.”

OUR PICK: Shaving Cream Duo

Shop | $40

3. Zerra & Co | MAKEUP

When the founder of Zerra & Co. decided to try and live a low waste lifestyle, she struggled to find zero waste cosmetics that could easily replace the versions she knew and loved. After researching DIY versions, she quickly discovered how dangerous they could be. Determined to make a difference, she decided to create a company that made safe, natural, and easy to use zero waste cosmetics. Zerra & Co. was born.

You won’t see any single use plastic in their packaging, and they also don’t use petroleum based ingredients in their cosmetics. This means no parabens, no silicones, no synthetic fragrances, no coal-tar pigments, and much more.

Our Pick: The Zero Waste Mascara. Why We Love It: Their “vegan liquid Mascara formula comes in a plastic free glass vial. Reuse your own wand after a deep cleaning or use the bamboo wand provided.” Want to skip the bamboo wand? Just let Zerra & Co. know in the notes section of your order!

OUR PICK: The Zero Waste Mascara

Shop | $17.99

4. GOEX | Eco Triblend Tee

Goex uses a simple tee to connect the customer and the maker. Customers sustain fair wage jobs that liberate workers from poverty and empower them in their families and communities. At GOEX, we seek to do better in everything we do. Their social impact reaches people in Haiti and the USA – fair wages, job training partnerships, recycled content and full transparency throughout their supply chain, making a better shirt for a better world.  When you wear a GOEX tee, you’ll not only feel good because it’s soft & comfy, you’ll feel great knowing there’s good woven into every fiber.

Our Pick: Eco Triblend Tee. Why We Love It: This tee’s “eco-friendly fabric includes five recycled water bottles and is a slightly heavier weight than many triblends, keeping this shirt looking great wash after wash. When you go with GOEX, you’re making an impact on the environment. PLUS you are helping to sustain dignified, fair wage jobs that help families stay together.”

OUR PICK: Eco Triblend Tee (Solid Colors)

Shop | $18

5. KOA+ROY | Body Care

KOA+ROY is a woman-owned, San Diego based small business operating in the natural personal care space. The company formulates, develops, handcrafts, and markets all-natural, sustainably produced, entirely zero-waste, plastic-free, and yet modern body care products. 

Sustainability: A certified B Corp since 2019, KOA+ROY, supports reforestation efforts across the globe by partnering with “One Tree Planted” to plant one tree for each product sold. 

Our Pick: The Wellness Cube. Why We Love It: The wellness Cube is an “all-natural way help your body relax while softening your skin. The Cube contains a powerful blend of botanicals and essential oils uses aromatherapy to provide a soothing and relaxing experience leaving you energized for the rest of the day.”

OUR PICK: The Wellness Cube

Shop | $30

6. ATELIERE | JEWELRY +

Ateliere founder, Emily Peters, is a creator. Designer. Artist. Singer. Artisan. Ateliere was born in 2009 as a small art-to-wear jewelry house. Emily’s intentions have always been towards sustainability and regenerative living. Emily knows that things of beauty can hold and carry function, and also protect the planet and its inhabitants. Her jewelry is an incredible balance of nature inspired designs with a modern look and feel. Simple elegance is how we best describe Ateliere’s beautiful and timeless designs. 

Ateliere jewelry is created from either recycled, reclaimed, organic or sustainable materials. The artists workshop is run at zero-waste standards, and if she cannot reuse any waste from production, she finds its appropriate recycling stream.

Our Pick: The SPACES collection allies earring. Why We Love It: Made by hand from “24K gold fill sheet metal and wire. One of a kind. The SPACES collection is made using the beautiful shapes left from cutting the larger collections – Revolution, Synthesis & Eon – and discarded beads of natural materials like shells and stones.”

OUR PICK: The SPACES Collection Allies Earring

Shop | $36

7. AETHER | DIAMONDS

Yes, diamonds! Aether sells diamonds that are made entirely from carbon captured from the air: “The manufacturing process that we’ve developed enables us to transform harmful atmospheric CO2 into gem-grade diamonds,” says Ryan Shearman, co-founder and CEO. To power its manufacturing process, Aether buys clean energy. Aether diamonds are as real as mined with none of the harmful consequences — every carat of their stones creates a positive impact on the planet.

Sustainability: Aether diamonds are not only gorgeous and sparkly, they are certified positive-impact diamonds. The company estimates that for every one-carat diamond it makes, it removes about 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That’s more than the average American is responsible for in a year. Each piece of jewelry is hand set in responsibly sourced metals. 

Our Pick: Open Skies. diamond Band. Why We Love It: “This ring features large baguette diamonds made from air live up to their origins, appearing to gracefully float around your finger.  1.2 total carat weight, offsets your carbon footprint for 1.5 years.”

OUR PICK: Open Skies Diamond Band

Shop | $5998

8. SAMARA | BAGS & ACCESSORIES

SAMARA is a sustainable company that creates beautiful, quality vegan leather products. Their goal is to provide luxury vegan fashion that is as simplistic and elegant as true leather, without harming animals.

As for sustainability, SAMARA creates their products using vegan leather made from water-based PU and microfiber, which is much less toxic and wasteful than the PVC that most vegan leather is made from. They are also looking to replace plastics completely with 100% plant-based materials like leather made from apples.

Our Pick: The Apple Leather Tote. Why We Love It: “The Apple Tote is a recreation of one of their best sellers – The Tote – but instead, it is created using apple skins. Designed to accompany every outfit and every occasion, the Apple Leather Tote can fit it all (from your laptop to your gym gear).”

OUR PICK: Apple Leather Tote

Shop | $295


9. Click A Tree | Give the Gift of Reforestation

CLICK A TREE plants trees all around the world. It’s the perfect gift for the nature-lover in your family. Planting more trees does so much to alleviate poverty, to absorb carbon, to support a healthy water cycle, and to reduce desertification cause by deforestation.

OUR PICK: Trees for Entrepreneurs in Ghana

Shop | $25

10. ITEMERIE | HOME & PERSONAL

Itemerie is an online marketplace for quality, ethical & responsibly-made goods for you and your home. At Itemerie, you’ll find quality items that you can expect to last for years:

“We operate on the premise that you shouldn’t have to be throwing items away within weeks of buying them.”

Their items are lovingly crafted by skilled artisans. When you buy one of Itemerie’s products, you’re getting a meaningful item that was made with a purpose — to serve you well for years. 

Our Pick: Lady in Red Non-Toxic Nail Polish. Why We Love It: “Traditional nail polish is full of awful chemicals that are terrible for your skin and nails. On top of that, many contain ingredients made from animals. Be kind to the animals and cringe no more with our vegan and 10-free nail polish. Why 10-free? They are free from the 10 most common toxic ingredients found in nail polish.”

OUR PICK: Red Non-Toxic Nail Polish

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Shop | $14

11. MADE TRADE | CLOTHING + HOME

MADE TRADE believes in “making the world a more beautiful place by holding ourselves to a higher ethical standard.” They call it being “ethically elevated.” It means they “put artistry above efficiency. Fair wages above profits. Sustainability above mass production. Quality craftsmanship above mindless consumption.”

Our Pick: Handmade Nyota Metallic Floret Coasters by KAZI. Why We Love It: KAZI was founded to create beautiful products that alleviate poverty across rural Africa. Their products are all made from all natural fibers of sisal and sweet grass with natural dyes that are food safe. KAZI sources local materials native to Africa that are readily available to their artisans. KAZI reinvests their profits to further expand artisan development through training initiatives — training rural farmers to become artisans and teaching existing craftspeople new techniques and processes to continue to build upon their existing skill sets.

OUR PICK: Handmade Nyota Metallic Floret Coasters

Shop | $26

12. SIMBLY | FURNITURE

SIMBLY believes “great design and environmental sustainability can come together to improve our lifestyles and create balance with nature.”

Simply manufactures well-designed, minimalist furniture made of sustainably harvested, FSC certified wood. Their factory is located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Asheville, North Carolina.

Our Pick: Coffee Table

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Shop | $499

13. KOTN | CLOTHING FOR MEN + WOMEN + TEENS

We’ve been long searching for a sustainable brand that makes stylish basics, and we’re so excited to have discovered KOTN. This BCorp clothing brand produces quality wardrobe essentials & basics in an ethical and eco-friendly way– a concept we can totally get behind. KOTN’s clothing is made from natural authentic Egyptian cotton, an incredibly soft material that is grown ethically in the Nile Delta.

KOTN works directly with farming families in Egypt, and purchases the cotton at a fair price—which helps to support the local economies along the Nile and prevent the exploitation of cotton farmers and factory workers. If that weren’t enough, not only are their stylish items the perfect base for your closet, they’re actually affordable too.

Our Pick: A cotton toque (beanie) is the perfect gift for a teen! Why We Love It: “This beanie is a textured, sturdy knit that adds warmth and style to any outfit. Made from 100% BCI (Better Cotton Initiative) cotton for maximum comfort, breathability and an ultra-soft feel, with none of the conventional itch.”

Our Pick: Unisex Beanie

Shop | $33

14. ECO LUNCHBOX | ZERO WASTE ITEMS

ECO LUNCHBOX believes in creating a zero waste food culture. If you don’t have non-toxic and no-waste lunchware in your pantry, it’s time to tool up. With ECOlunchbox, it can be easy for you and your family to ditch the plastic tubs, plastic baggies, pre-packaged cheese sticks, yogurt squeezies, wrapped cookies and food bars.

Our Pick: Seal Cup Large

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Shop | $16

15. GREEN KID CRAFTS| STEAM BOXES FOR AGES 2-10+

GREEN KID CRAFTS believes in empowering the next generation of environmental leaders using creative, nature-based STEAM activities.

Our Pick: Rainforest Science Box

Shop | $34.95

16. BATHING CULTURE | PERSONAL & PLANETARY CARE

BATHING CULTURE “celebrates the simple necessity of bathing. How it bonds humanity and cultures across time and space.” They use all natural and environmentally friendly ingredients, zero waste to low-waste re-usable containers, and embrace a positive vibe and culture.

Our Pick: Big Dipper Mineral Bath. Why We Love It: “Bathing Culture Big Dipper Mineral Bath melts away mind and muscle stress with this blend of mineral-rich salts, green clay, and jojoba oil infused with hemp-derived CBD. West Coast sea salts and clay will leave your skin silky and non-psychoactive hemp will take you into the cosmos.”

Our Pick:  Big Dipper Mineral Bath

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Shop | $30

17. MAKA Earth | Wellness

MAKA means the “Earth”, “wisdom”, “medicinal herb,” and “holistic healing” in many different languages and cultures. MAKA chose the name to reflect their Ayurvedic approach to healing through science, inner balance, and using the most medicinal plant on Earth.  They “honor our Earth by establishing eco-positive practices, holding product development and supply chain close-in, and offering a brand that is all-natural,  transparent, and takes gimmickry off the table.” MAKA sources certified industrial hemp from organic farms and farming partners, and extracts the highest quality full-spectrum CBD hemp oil in the Western Slopes of Colorado

Our Pick: Soothing Body Oil. Why We Love It: “Delivers soothing and moisturizing oils around sore muscles, joints, and irritated areas. Ingredients include powerful antioxidants, anti-inflammatory, and antimicropbial plants with organic coconut and jojoba oils and 200mg/3 oz of full spectrum CBD.”

Our Pick:  Soothing Body Oil

Shop | $30 (On Sale!)

For more eco-friendly gift ideas visit our global Sustainable Marketplace and our local Durango Sustainable Business Guide.

From all of us at Live Creative Studio, we wish you and your family a beautiful holiday filled with cheer, connection to one another, and gratitude for our natural world and all her gifts.

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Live Creative is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Our Creative Studio offers authentic marketing, branding, and sustainable business expertise to ethical, sustainable, and purpose brands. And our Lifestyle Team brings the curious and the conscious inspiring sustainable lifestyle, zero waste tips, and examples of innovation changing business for good.

Filed Under: Blog, Lifestyle Tagged With: eco-friendly gifts, green gifts, green your holiday, holiday gift guide, sustainable gifts, sustainable holiday gift guide

The Re-Use Revolution is Here: 4 Tips To Get Your Brand Competitive

November 4, 2021 By Claire Attkisson

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Jeans with rips, tears, and holes are all the rage these days. This trend suggests that we may be ready to wear actual used clothing with real patches. Can marketers move brands into this realm, turning patches that extend the life of a product from a signal of low-class to a signal of care?

“Built to last” used to be Ford’s tag-line; ironically however, this brilliant slogan didn’t last as the 1980’s ushered in “planned obsolescence” as a signal of “progress”. And now we’re all traumatized by the wasteful “fast fashion” movement so prevalent today, as more clothes are incinerated each year than are on the market.

What can your sustainable brand do to buck these trends? Consider integrating into your triple bottom line business model one or more of the following sustainable innovations:

1. Bring the WWII “built to last” culture back: The power of heirloom thinking

Build your purpose brand around a truly tough and long lasting product designed for 9-lives. Use high quality, durable materials. Build your marketing campaign around passing down your products to the next generation (much like the watch and jewelry industries do today).

2. Design your ethical products for the circular economy.

Cradle-to-Cradle is a brilliant sustainability framework to help you design for easy disassembly of a product at end of life, separating each material into technical and biological categories for continuous re-use. A circular economy eliminates the idea of waste and the idea of mining virgin materials.

Products built for circularity are perfect for stand-out marketing campaigns, setting your purpose brand apart as a leader, an innovator, a problem solver, and part of the solution. Don’t miss out on that opportunity to build your brand.

Example: Gugler, C2C Certified

In November 2011, Gugler GmbH succeeded in earning the first Cradle to Cradle Certified™ – Silver certificate for offset printed products. Pureprint Gold by Gugler GmbH is an offset printed product group designed to be recyclable and compostable. Based on the Pureprint Gold components, Gugler GmbH offers a wide range of offset printed paper and cardboard products such as books, magazines, cardboard children’s books, folders, brochures and folding boxes.

3. Offer your customers repair services

The outdoor industry has been a leader in the repair realm for decades. Now we’re seeing the fashion industry move in this direction. Here’s an example and a great marketing campaign (video below) to inspire you:

Barbour

Founded in 1894, Barbour has been rewaxing and repairing jackets in its South Shields, UK headquarters for almost a hundred years. Regular rewaxing (and repairs if required) extends the life of a Barbour jacket; and many wax jackets are handed down through generations of a family, making them a timeless and responsible choice.

This holiday season, Barbour created a film is based on the true story of Dudley the dachshund, who chewed his owner’s much-adored Barbour jacket. His owner sent it back to Barbour with a note from Dudley to say he was sorry.

“This is a very special Christmas campaign for us, as it’s based on a true story from one of our customers,” says Paul Wilkinson, Global Marketing and Commercial Director at Barbour. “The film highlights how much our Barbour jackets are loved and become an important part of the family. Barbour wax jackets are made to last; and if you rewax your jacket at least once a year, it could last you a lifetime — even if a naughty dachshund does decide to get his teeth into it!”

Drop it in the mail, not the landfill

The company Patagonia has even created a new brand called, Warn Wear to show how re-use isn’t just about patches, but actually recreating a new look and style, using only the best pieces of a returned product.

And more purpose-brands are doing the same. Here’s a list of our favorite purpose brands that offer a repair program:

Nudie Jeans, Mud Jeans and Hiut Denim offer free repairs for life, as well as clothing leasing models; and Eileen Fisher, Levi Strauss, The North Face and Patagonia are among the brands with marketplaces dedicated to selling their recovered and refurbished items.

Purpose, sustainable, and ethical brands have a unique opportunity to inspire their customers and fans to think, act, and spend in new ways. Don’t get left behind. Be part of the new wave of re-use and build your marketing campaign around intergenerational, nature-positive design. Pass down more than feel-good, family memories—pass down the planet too.

4. Become or Support an Upcycled Clothing Designer/Entrepreneur

Suay Sew Shop

Ditch fast fashion and embrace upcycled clothing and design. For example, support Suay Sew Shop. Suay is more than a shop it’s a movement.

Suay Sew Shop products are created from a combination of post-consumer waste, deadstock, and domestic, organically, grown fibers. We produce a diverse range of ethically made and masterfully-crafted products. Remade in Los Angeles, California. 

Cultivating upcycling as a priority will not only massively impact our planet, but our daily quality of life. 

Here’s 4 more upcycled fashion brands to support:

@psychic.outlaw

@upcycled_by_reissued

@shoploti_

@picnicwear

Cultivating upcycling as a priority will not only massively impact our planet, but our daily quality of life. Brands that embrace the re-use movement will gain competitive advantage over the next 5 years. Live Creative Studio is here to help you make this #shift.

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If you liked this and want more, subscribe to our weekly eNews Get Real— an Innovation for Good mash up of marketing and lifestyle tips and positive news about cool sustainable brands and innovators changing business for good. Get Real inspires and offers practical pro-tips to help individuals and businesses increase their positive impact.

Live Creative Studio is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Live Creative offers strategic creative for purpose brands; strategic sustainability for any business; and a curated sustainable marketplace for everyone to shop their values every day.

Filed Under: Blog, Innovation, Marketing Biz Tips Tagged With: purposebranding, re-use, recycle, ssustainablebrands, sustainablemarketing, upcyclefashion

Join the Sustainable Food Revolution: Waste Not, Want Not

October 9, 2021 By Claire Attkisson

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Farm Fresh Family Meal

How can we re-design a food system that supports farmers and the land, is truly healthy, and results in a life-supporting local and global economy poised to feed billions?

We’re amazed at what we found out researching these questions. Human innovation, ingenuity, and creativity seem to thrive when times are tough, and we finally recognize natures design constraints. Our blog this month shares cool stories of revolutionary food innovations sprouting up across the globe that are beginning to define a sustainable food paradigm by addressing world hunger, climate change, and turn food deserts into abundant nutrient oasis’…it’s happening, people!

Growing Food in the COVID Context

We humans invented Democracy and we went to the moon—testaments to human potential; yet in crisis it turns out that our survival depends, not on self driving cars or appliances that talk back to us in English and Finnish, but rather on the same basic building blocks that all animals require: clean food and water and washing our hands (that is to say, hygiene). The call is out to return there, to remember who and what we are; to pause (a different kind of action) and look back to what we’ve created and manufactured for growth and progress, and use our new innovative thinking, to get the basics—food, drink, exercise—right. How we do this, our purpose, is the “secret ingredient” or the magic, to make surviving/sustaining our compelling collective cause and lifelong endeavor.

Self-care, at its most generous, is the conversation between friends, companies, school systems, countries. Taking care of each other and our world. Sustainability as the “new normal” can redefine definitions of progress and inspire tremendous design and creative innovation.  Small and big businesses alike know this more acutely now, as ESG investing is out performing standard investing during the crisis. Caring about people and the planet is the new competitive advantage for business. “We, the people”, care what happens to our world, our home. COVID points to the fact that human encroachment on wild land is bringing human contact ever closer to new life-threatening diseases. For growing numbers of people, a spot-light is shining on our economic and business as usual model. Our global economy connects us all. The time is now to design a life-sustaining economy. This is no longer abstract. COVID makes it real.

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Farmers Market Bounty

Inspiring Food Innovation Companies You Should Know and Support

There are five trends emerging in restaurants that we will once again leave our homes to dine in—likely, with greater elbow room. Pockets of sustainability-inspired venues have been popping up across our country and others; now the movement is inspired, bringing whole new tastes and smells, and acres and networks that create purpose and repurpose to what and how we eat food. There is a tacit understanding and trust between patron and establishment on the terms of their relationship. “Infusion” is not in the tiring details of self-conscious waiter’s recitations (thyme and whats-its in meat, pistachios in chocolate chip ice cream.) It is trust that the triple bottom line (people, planet, profit) is infused in the fabric of the menus and how the business operates.

The meals we make and bring to our table require the same standards. We cringe at what we perceive as the inhumane acts of taking fins from sharks and throwing the bodies back into the ocean. We are care about where our food comes from and where it goes.

Our nomadic ancestors chased their prey into canyons and slaughtered them. It was their only way and they used every bit of the animals they caught. We are moving away from the mass slaughter idea and embracing the habit of using the whole animal once again. Restaurants and chefs are often personally connected to local butchers, farms, and fish nurseries.

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London’s First Meat Free Butcher Shop

Then there’s the “Beyond Meat” movement. London just opened its first “Meat Free Butcher Shop“. An in-store butcher, trained in plant-based cooking, will do live demonstrations of meat-free recipes and give tips to customers on how to create mouth-watering vegetarian and vegan dishes at home. Customers will be able to choose from 20 animal-free products, including the likes of BBQ-pulled jackfruit, chorizo-style Shroomdogs, meatless bacon, veggie ribz and Moroccan vegbabs. All purchases will be weighed and wrapped just like in a traditional butchery.

Spoiler Alert

Composting our food waste is a successful end of life solution for farms and individuals, however, for grocery stores this is simply not done. What if we knew when food was going to spoil on grocery store shelves before it spoils?  Spoiler Alert is a new company doing just that—using data to manage waste and unsold inventory so effectively that they are helping their customers feed the most needy as a result. “Since the start of our pilot program with Spoiler Alert, we were able to donate over 1.5 million meals over the last year” said Laura McCord, Executive Director of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility at KeHE, a national food distributor.

ReFED 

ReFED is another food innovation company that has created a road map of 27 different ways to reduce food waste, while creating new jobs. Imagine that—no more Jobs vs. the environment grid lock! The organization has launched the ReFED COVID-19 Food Waste Solutions Fund to quickly deliver vital funding to organizations that can rapidly scale food waste reduction and couple them with hunger-relief organizations.

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Stockton, CA Farm-To-Family Program

Meanwhile, in California, the #1 agricultural producer in the US, amidst the COVID pandemic Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced an expansion of the state’s “Farm to Family” program, that will aim to address the disconnect between the state’s farmers — who, since the onset of the pandemic, are experiencing a 50 percent drop in demand for their mostly perishable food — and food banks, many of which are scrambling to meet skyrocketing demand from families in need.

The initiative will enable food-insecure people across the state to receive roughly 20 million pounds of fresh, locally produced food per month. Participants will receive fresh food boxes — each of which feeds a family for three to four days.

Upcycled Food —What?

“Upcycled Food” is not as bad as it sounds (we’re not talking mother birds regurgitating into their chick’s hungry mouths!). It’s a fast growing fledgling industry, which creates new, valuable food products out of the overlooked nutrients falling through the cracks in our food system. Imagine: vegetable stems turned into chips and leftover juice pulp transformed into granola to surplus bread (reborn as beer!). This spring, food waste prevention nonprofit, ReFed, released a census that said 11 such food companies existed in 2011. In 2017, there are 64 and counting. An amazing 400-and-growing upcycled products are currently on the market (according to the Upcycled Food Association—yep, there is one!)

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Upcycled Food Brands

An Upcycled Economy is Climate Positive

Last year, Future Market Insights produced a report in which it estimated that the value of the upcycled food economy was more than $46 billion, and predicted a five percent compound annual growth rate over the next decade. This is real money!

According to scientific and policy experts, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Project Drawdown, the world leaders on ranking climate change solutions, rank reducing food waste as the number one solution to the climate crisis.

According to the Upcycled Food Association upcycled food businesses are currently preventing at least eight million pounds of food waste per year, equivalent to millions of pounds of CO2 emissions prevented, and millions of gallons of water saved. 

As the Great Depression era taught my grandparents to save and reuse everything, this same ethic is being recognized again in the era of COVID as a key driver of a new life supporting upcycled food economy.

Business innovation is leading the way, are you ready to get on a much more fun and creative merry-go-round and reinvent business as a force for good? Join us.

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Waste Equals Food

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If you liked this and want more, join us by subscribing to our weekly eNews Get Real— an Innovation for Good mash up of marketing and lifestyle tips and positive news about cool sustainable brands and innovators changing business for good. Get Real inspires and offers practical pro-tips to help individuals and businesses increase their positive impact.

Live Creative Studio is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Live Creative offers strategic creative for purpose brands; strategic sustainability for any business; and a curated sustainable marketplace for everyone to shop their values every day.

Filed Under: Blog, Innovation Tagged With: Biomimicry, food waste, purpose brands, sustainable business, sustainable company, sustainable food company, sustainable innovation, upcycled food

Beyond Net Zero: Your Guide to Scaling a Climate Positive Business.

September 22, 2021 By Claire Attkisson

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Carbon Sequestering roof and cross laminated timber panels

It’s time for all businesses to do their part to change business for good and create a climate positive plan of action. Small business to large corporations all need to play a role in decarbonization (i.e. eliminating Green House Gases (GHG’s) and the use of fossil fuels in their operations, ditto for their suppliers, in shipping, packaging, and product material inputs) over the next 10+ years to thwart catastrophic climate change.

The good news is that we have solutions. Business solutions such as, carbon offsets (i.e. tree planting; deforestation investing, etc. solar farms); redesigning fossil fuels out of our product materials, supply chains and operations; converting to renewable energy to power your office and/or facility, and…The possibilities are many and the key to success is setting goals and a system for measuring them.

As the axiom goes: “What gets measured, gets done.”

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Cork Element Carbon Sequestering Forest Cultivation

6 Steps to Net Zero

  • Step one: Organizational leaders (i.e. the owner, entrepreneur, c-suite, CEO + board) must lead the decarbonization and/or net zero charge by setting a clear and meaningful vision. One of the first challenges businesses face in sustainability efforts is articulating a long-term vision with realistic, short- and mid-term goals for action. Without leadership driving the process, most sustainability programs stall and fail.

  • Step two: Start with the low hanging fruit. Set a short and mid-term emission reduction of Green House Gas (GHG) target through the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which evaluates corporate goals goals for alignment with what science shows us is required to keep warming below 1.5°C per the Paris Agreement. Science Based Targets are also a great guide for start-ups and small businesses.

  • Step three: Most companies start their sustainability journey addressing Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, which include direct emissions and those from purchased energy for companies’ own use. However, to truly achieve net zero requires a holistic view of the entire value chain. This means companies should incorporate Scope 3 emissions, which are indirect emissions from upstream and downstream activities, like employee commutes, supplier emissions and end-of-life (i.e. so called waste) product ingredients (time to phase out petroleum and plastics) processing.

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Our oceans can no longer absorb carbon without becoming too acidic
  • Step four: Establish your baseline and set realistic incremental goals. To begin, companies need to know where they are now and develop a thorough understanding of their environmental footprint, including scope 1,2 and 3 emissions, to help quantify and identify areas of improvement throughout the entire value chain.

  • Step five: Consider GHG offsets; redesigning your product to sequester carbon; or installing solar or wind power for your operations and the companies in your product value chain; or investing in regenerative farming and deforestation projects that help to sequester carbon. The solutions are here it’s really a matter of leadership taking action.

  • Step 6: Integrate sustainability into daily business operations. Defining how your unique business can become climate positive is just the beginning. It’s critical to translate sustainability goals into realistic action plan. Leadership should communicate the mission, vision and strategies clearly and ensure that sustainability practices are implemented into day-to-day operations and all employees are held accountable to specific decarbonization goals that they are responsible for in their job duties and evaluations.

Solar Power

The Benefits of Action

The late Ray C. Anderson, founder of Interface Carpet—one of the most sustainable companies on earth once asked:

“What is the business case for ending life on earth?”

An important question, but equally important is the business community’s response. We simply cannot continue business as usual if we hope to have a “climate fit for life” on earth.

The benefits of a climate positive plan for your business include:

  • competitive advantage
  • a values based workplace
  • product innovation
  • purpose-driven
  • a legacy impact
  • business longevity by supporting life on earth

Carbon in the Air Can Be Turned into A Business Opportunity

Resources

  • Set GHG Targets with the help of the Science Based Targets Initiative: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/

  • Offset your GHG emissions locally or internationally with: Four Corners Office of Energy Efficiency Carbon Offset Program: https://4cornersoffset.org/how-it-works/ or The Gold Standard: https://www.goldstandard.org/

  • Offset your plastic use with Plastics for Change: https://www.plasticsforchange.org/blog/what-is-plastic-offsetting

  • Host your website with a company that invests in renewable energy: https://www.greengeeks.com/

  • Search the web with an engine that invests in reforestation: https://www.ecosia.org/

  • Redesign waste and fossil fuels out of your products with Cradle-To-Cradle Safe and Circular Design: https://www.c2ccertified.org/education/safe-circular-material-choices

Download this Guide here:

Download: Becoming a Climate Positive Business Guide

_______________________

If you liked this and want more, join us by subscribing to our weekly eNews Get Real— an Innovation for Good mash up of marketing and lifestyle tips and positive news about cool sustainable brands and innovators changing business for good. Get Real inspires and offers practical pro-tips to help individuals and businesses increase their positive impact.

Live Creative Studio is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Live Creative offers strategic creative for purpose brands; strategic sustainability for any business; and a curated sustainable marketplace for everyone to shop their values every day.

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Filed Under: Blog, Innovation Tagged With: climate positive business, how to reduce GHG emissions, local sustainable business, net zero business, net zero business guide, sustainable business, sustainable business guide, sustainable business tools, what is a sustainable business?

Redesigning Our World Now: Optimism, Biomimicry, and Design

September 20, 2021 By Claire Attkisson

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The truth is, much of the world’s social and environmental problems can be solved by literally redesigning our world. As a marketing and creative agency in Durango, Colorado, with global impact, Live Creative Studio works with both entrepreneurs and established companies to innovate through purpose-driven branding and marketing. Some call it eco-marketing or sustainable marketing, while others call it marketing for conscious, green, or B Corporations. We call it purpose-driven marketing. We design for impact. We design to change the world no matter how you define your company.

To explore this idea of re-designing our world, I teamed up with an optimistic friend, writer/editor, Elizabeth Arlen. We will write a blog a month to bring to light all that is possible through inspiring design and new paradigms of thinking. This first blog focuses on the “earth shot” that is deeply needed in order to transform the way we make everyday things and why that even matters. We look to a new concept and tool called Biomimicry developed by scientist and scholar, Janine Benyus. She points out that Nature’s genius design principles have sustained life for nearly 4 million years, and maybe we should stop disassociating and become teachable to natural ways to drive our world’s product innovations and our new economy.

Capitalism is not the great evil; the toxic ingredients we use to make our products and short term greed need a serious reality check, now that we have the knowledge and technology to redesign them. There are no coincidences: just as we need it, we have opened up a vast new frontier. The truth is we haven’t veered off the path of progress, as so many lament; the path of progress has led us right here. Life is messy. Our learning curves are not quick and they include accidents and ugliness. So it has always been. We didn’t invent penicillin, child labor laws, seatbelts and CPR just in case a tragedy should ever happen. The tragedies happened first. We are right where we are supposed to be. The Penicillin of today is a new business and economic paradigm built on sustainable product design that upholds the natural laws of what is conducive to life.

A brief historical context: How did we get here?

The truth is, we are optimists, We the People, are. Yes, there is an American stamp on this phrase but, truthfully, all over the globe, for thousands of years, groups of any amount above an one, have been referring to themselves with equal self-possession and toward a higher purpose (there may have been a plan to go bowling but the research on that is thin).

With optimism and practical shoes, Colonists, set sail across the Atlantic in the 1700s to, oh, you know, create a new Country. It was not their second one. This was their singular shot, fueled by desperation and an optimistic faith in their cause: to create conditions conducive to Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. In India, in 1932, Gandi’s 7-day fast was as loud as any revolution; surrounded by fear and hate, his faith and optimism in the best of humanity, committed him to the same cause: to create conditions conducive to life, and at the risk of his own (hence, his optimism). The Dali Lama, of a Chinese oppressed Tibet, stands for a cause when he travels the globe as someone who is real and light and wrote the book, “We are Responsible for our own happiness.” We are. We must be our own heroes. We must gather our optimism to meet the needs of life.

In the West, we create movies that echo the inspiration of, “We will overcome,” and “I have a dream.  Classics hang on or are redone, like, ‘Annie,’ ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ ‘Rocky’ and Zeffereli’s tweaking of Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’–the blueprint for every love song and story ever told– because we really do believe them: The sun will come up tomorrow; there is no place like home; the best of our humanity will empower us to rise up in triumph (yes, Romeo and Juliet, are actually too dead for that; but for 47 hours those two kids shared a divine and optimistic love that raised them above all else, and when Prince Eschalus declared “All are pun-ish-shed!”, the Montagues and Capulets fell to their knees to process their first phase of grief and flawed humanity). The unbound optimism of love was the victor.

Today’s Marvel heroes and Tom Cruise’s still very fast Ethan Hunt, believe there’s no place like home and run down Dubai buildings or take to the skies with hammer, iron, sticky string, breastplates, and good looks, in order to save it: earth. And, people, do we identify with the screaming civilians scampering in fear into an upended Starbuck’s and H& M? Anyone? Of course we don’t. Sure, a lot of us think we want someone else to swoop in and save us; but the truth is, in our hearts, we identify with the optimism and bravery of our heroes—we have it inside us to be one, on the saving side.

What? Yes, when Robert Downey Jr., looked at us and announced, “I am Iron Man,” we thought, ‘He’s dreamy” (well, to some, it’s in the report);  what we actually thought is,  ‘I am Iron-man,’  ‘I believe, too.’ Yes, when our heroes’ eyes deepen and shimmer into their souls, we, the audience, feel the tug on the hope and heart of our own humanity, and want to jump up and ‘Just do it.”

Outside of the theater, today is fast and distracting. It’s hard to find a culture around the globe that isn’t completely online and virtually doing everything. We have our smartest phones and our noses in them, while we don our serious suits or Lulu lemon leggings; with our free hand holding a blue print or protein bar or another little hand; we fight the good fight, doing our best to be the best with an ambition to be successful in our belonging.  But belong to what? Ourselves, with nature as the backdrop? Stand on your heads if you have to, because our perspective is more than off. It is not real: We belong to nature and need it, just like the rest of earth’s creatures, with our own Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family Genus, Species.

Nature is not a place that exists only when we are on vacation. We all feel the pull it has on us, don’t we? How we gaze at sunsets and sunrises and the stars and love the feel of the beach under our feet, the crunch of leaves, the smell of the rain; we ride our stationary bikes looking at a virtual trail on our monitor; we even go to bed listening to the electronic sound of the wind, the wolves or the Whales (and not just to hear Robert Redford). We are part of nature. It is within us and our home.

But what of the optimists in these climate changing times?

Optimists, step forward. Optimists are our valuable dreamers equipped with hope and knowledge; they are the people who are quiet and not apocalyptic about our future because they are too busy working in it. Inspired by their optimistic vision, they have seen that Nature’s diversity is the new paradigm in which to work and create. There is no place like home.

Our heroic optimists are in action and we can choose their side over the stagnation of a small vision of division among and between the races, classes, genders, parties, etc. ‘Just Do it.’ It’s Nike’s brilliance to tap into our inner heroism; to know we can’t think ourselves into right action or talk ourselves into right thinking: Action is where we must live. Action is life.

Janine Benyus, with her calm humility and deep wisdom, is one such optimist: “Life creates conditions that are conducive to life.” This simple and profound sentence summarizes her perfect understanding of the success of Nature. Benyus is an example of our natural wiring; whether it is from hope or optimism or something primal, we, just like the rest of earth’s inhabitants, want to create conditions conducive to life. She is not panicking; she is open and smiling and in action, spreading the word everywhere, including on Youtube and the ‘Today’ show. She knows something—even the excited “Today’ reporter could feel it tromping breathless and bubbly behind her in the woods.

What Benyus knows is the test of time of nature’s design, which she calls Biomimicry.  Biomimicry “is an innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies.” 

All or not punished, after all! We know a way out of this mess. We have not veered from the path of progress, remember? “The only thing to fear is fear itself.”  Remember? Now, is the time to regroup, and reconsider what we strive for.  We need to reframe the design of all things to ensure the existence of our resources and all of our children’s sunsets, and their children’s. The sun will, indeed, come up tomorrow.

Does someone have a blow horn? Everyone should know that Biomimicry is a game-changing tool.

We need to communicate loudly or through millions of “beats” around the world that the sky is not falling. We have solutions; the absolute possibility of a livable future. This is where true grit turns to face the challenge; this is the time when great leaders inspire and say with faith and hope, “I have a dream!” “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.” Those optimistic leaders and the quieter one like Janine Benyus, believe in us.

Do we believe in ourselves? You mean right now? Not so much. We are certainly moved by media to constantly point to what is not working, instead of inspiring what is possible. We traumatize ourselves with HBO specials showing brilliant scenes of oceans and sunsets that suddenly assault us with bulldozers raping the Rain Forest or Polar bears floating on a foot-long slab of ice. We do not bring forth our power by pointing to the mistakes or evil among Us. We ‘just do’ absolutely nothing with guilt or blame or hate to distract and paralyze us.

We consumers are weighted down with this rumor that the answer to our problems is recycling. It helps, but the consumer cannot bear the brunt of solving our environmental problems; nor is it a real solution. No wonder we feel powerless and overwhelmed. No wonder we suffer in an unnecessary atmosphere of doom and gloom which so many of us feel today.

Raise your chins, and get radical with the optimism within you. Negativity and gloom are so last year. Believe, because nature is our solution.  Nature doesn’t have a waste problem. It knows what it’s doing. We, our young little species, do. But we are teachable.  So what can we learn from nature?

What does Biomimicry have to do with re-designing our world?

tree_of_life_pic

Designers, this is our cue. We need to begin at the beginning, with people who design products, not just use them. How we make every day things, as well as luxury things, is a radical act. The very product ingredients, the chemistry, and their end of life, are all critical design stages from which nature can inspire us and bring about new ways of manufacturing that are conducive to life.

“Form follows function” is emblazoned in the hearts and minds of all young design students, as well as, seasoned practitioners. If we follow this wisdom, then understanding the “function” of an object is a critical first step. What purpose does the object have? Is the object/product conducive to life?

Biomimicry can help us answer these questions. It is not only a new model for design and innovation, it’s a a path to re-designing our world as we know it. Biomimicry (learn this term!) challenges designers to be at the forefront of creating things that we use and dispose of every day, as if our nature mattered—and it does. Designers love constraints because that is where the magic and creativity live. Nature is our constraint.  All of life, including humans, needs sun light (energy), oxygen, water and a nice temperature to exist and thrive.

Humans are born with the competence of pudding compared to the natural genius around us. In 3.8 billion years, life on earth has learned what works, what lasts, what evolves. And, how even death becomes the ingredients for new life.

Biomimicry invites us to consider natures “operating instructions” to create things we need to “function”. In this vision, the form, which follows the function, will be in concert with life.

Yeah, yeah, this all sounds so warm and fuzzy and far away from business.

Is Biomimicry practical? How might it shape the new, clean economy? 

Well, talk to the hedgehog.  Few of earth’s creatures can travel with the whimsy of a hedgehog. Do they free fall from trees on purpose? You bet—because it’s quicker than climbing down. When they fall from a tree do they make a sound? We have no idea (that’s in another study), but scientists around the water cooler mentioned a giggle.

hedgehog_pic

And why not? They have quills to buffer the fall and allow them to tumble and spring up good as new. Researchers and scientists are taking a closer look in the hope of saving our athletes in the NFL and Tour de France and Durango High School (home to our teenage daughters and sons— Go Demons!) from sometimes fatal concussions or eventual brain damage. Our helmets today are hard and unforgiving, and often hurt athletes as much as the actual fall.

Innovator, Hedgemen, has researched the hedgehogs quill technology and buffering system, resulting in a new line of helmets inspired by the hedgehog. Keep it in mind when you shop for helmets in the near future. Buildings too are following the lead of the hedgehog, pushing innovations in architectural design that radically reduce energy consumption.

hedge_hog_building

Now take a look at the Shinkansen Bullet train. The bullet, as people like to call it, travels 200 miles per hour. It’s very James Bond and if 007 were on such a train he would be able to have shaken martini in style without any disturbing background noise or motion. Even in a cartoon, the word inside the bubble would be ‘Whoosh.’

In reality, the sound this train produced was more like a thunder clap that burst all bubbles and rattled teeth within a mile radius.

Fortunately, Eji Nakatsu, the Shinkasen’s 500’s Chief Engineer, happened to be an avid bird watcher and had the instinct to look around nature (i.e. Biomimicry) and find a model of something that could move smoothly and quietly between two mediums.

He knew the answer could not be human-made–we had taken our technology as far as it or we could go. He discovered the answer in the Kingfisher, a bird who dives from the air into bodies of water without much splash.

Modeling the train front after the bird’s beak resulted in a quieter train with the added bonus of efficiently producing 15 percent less energy.

Speaking of less energy, have you ever noticed how most large animals conserve their energy and only use it when they really need it? There is something to be learned from that observation too.

The truth is, ‘There’s no place like home,” and Biomimicry sees the genius answers are right here (and we don’t have to be good looking to see them).

King_fisher_biomimicry

Next up: the peacock. We call it the “Peacock Principle”.  Peacocks are a brilliant symphony of blue and gold in all their shades and variations. It’s a flamboyance of color matched only—albeit, not as nuanced—by Elton John. Actually, the Peacock is brown. I know. This fact is world-rocking, in and of itself—especially to the Peacock. We are wedded to the Peacock and its beauty, and use chemicals and pigments to recreate its likeness in our fabrics and jewelry and jewelry boxes. The brown Peacock would burn and die if its colors were invented by toxins, so instead of imitating the look, we are learning to emulate the process.

It’s a more curious and patient vision we are acquiring for the living world we belong to. What we see now is that the beautiful colors of a Peacock are created with structural color and transparent layers. When light reflects to us through these layers it creates the color blue, or green or gold to our eyes. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

So, what if we could make our fabrics with the same principles of color that a Peacock has innovated? What if we didn’t have to use toxic dyes to make gorgeous color for our jewelry? Biomimicry takes us to the edge and we simply must jump in and innovate following natures amazing design principles.

The E-reader display screen uses the Peacock Principle. Developed by Qualcom, the screen needs no back lighting, because it uses layers and the ambient light to create the different color to your eye; in so doing, this folding in of nature and technology, is a far less aggressive approach and uses a much lower energy.

See more examples of Biomimicry at work by following our Face Book page.

Peacock_Pic

What does biomimicry have to do with branding?

While Biomimicry places nature at the heart of design, branding creates the meaning behind the design and why it matters. The best brands today inspire us to become something; to be part of something; to reach for possibility. We find our sense of belonging; our tribe; when we don a Nike t-shirt and “Just do it,” or open up our Apple lap-top with the inspiration to defy the rules and create the world we want; to clean house, knowing “Seven Generations” will benefit from our non-toxic sprays.

We are optimists, remember? Life is always in search of life. No matter how big our egos grow, the planet will evolve either with us or without us. Biomimicry is a platform for creating products and brands with nature as the Designer. We create and exchange goods, and we belong again to the nature of things. We act as if nature matters—and in the end it does, for life’s sake. It’s a new business and economic paradigm calling. It’s our path to a livable world. It’s time to pivot.

By Claire Attkisson (she’s the sustainability/marketing geek) and Elizabeth Arlen (she’s the writer/editor and the funny one.)

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If you liked this and want more, join us by subscribing to our weekly eNews Get Real— an Innovation for Good mash up of marketing and lifestyle tips and positive news about cool sustainable brands and innovators changing business for good. Get Real inspires and offers practical pro-tips to help individuals and businesses increase their positive impact.

Live Creative Studio is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Live Creative offers strategic creative for purpose brands; strategic sustainability for any business; and a curated sustainable marketplace for everyone to shop their values every day.

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Filed Under: Blog, Innovation Tagged With: Biomimicry, durango marketing agency, Durango sustainable business, purpose brands, purpose-driven marketing, sustainable design, sustainable innovation

Hope in the Climate Crisis Age: Products that Sequester Carbon

September 7, 2021 By Claire Attkisson

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Carbon—From Enemy to Resource

What does sustainable business have to do with climate change? Our global economy today was built on cheap fossil fuel energy (carbon stored in the ground), which has fueled a never-ending thirst for more and more energy to keep it going and growing. While many point at business as the evil destroyer of the planet, I do not. I believe growing business is natural—everything in nature is growing; it is our natural order and drive. That said, I do believe that business must reinvent itself as a force for environmental and social good and take the lead on climate.  As Ray Anderson, founder of Interface Carpet, asks: “What is the business case for ending life on Earth?”

As product designers, creatives, engineers, and purpose brand marketers we have a unique seat at the business reinvention table. Like, artists, we can inspire a new way of seeing the world, like Picasso, Frida Kalo, and Leonardo DaVinci have done. We are in a new age of enlightenment— a design renaissance that is going to blow our minds. Are you ready? I am.

But, before we get to where we are going with new ways of thinking that are different than our current thinking (a requirement noted by Albert Einstein), we need to understand where we are now. Climate change is not a matter up for question, it’s a matter of how bad. But we can’t freeze up and stress there. We cannot afford to and are bigger than that. There is a lack of communication between the people who are creating a new future and the citizenry who are steeped in guilt and powerlessness. As usual, good news is not news so the masses don’t hear about it. So, we consume and feel guilty, we recycle the cardboard cover of a bouncy house and feel just a bit better. But our goal cannot be to feel “less bad”! (thank you, architect and sustainability thought leader, William McDonough, for that insight).

The conventional doom and gloom feeling and story about climate change is that it is a problem of burning fossil fuels for electricity and transport. While true, that is not the entire story. What it misses is the fact that a 3rd of global carbon emissions come from the chemistry of stuff. The biggest carbon contributors in the world of stuff are: Cement (think: buildings), steal (again think: building/auto’s), and plastic (think: every other product made on this planet). The things we love every-day are designed and manufactured to off-gas CO2.

Einstein Thinking Quote Top 60 Albert Einstein Quotes That Will Change Your Life – The Best – QUOTES BY PEOPLE

What if I told you that the new way of thinking (thank you, Einstein) that will save us are already here. It starts with changing how we think about carbon.

Carbon molecules, while vilified today, are the building blocks of all living things, including humans. Us. Big carbon-based molecules are how life stores the energy of the sun. How can we make the carbon molecule good again, life producing?

Let’s take the lead from Interface Carpet and “design with carbon in mind.” In doing so, we ask the question: What if we could take carbon out of the atmosphere when producing every-day things? What if we could build our homes and make the clothing we wear so that they sequester or store carbon? Think about that a minute.

Product design to sequester carbon isn’t science fiction. It’s happening right now all over the world.

Here are a few examples:

  1. Take Interface Carpet, they are the company that created the carpet squares we all love. Their company-wide sustainability philosophy is a “commitment to running our business in a way that reverses global warming and creates a climate fit for life.” Wow, what a goal, what a sense of purpose! Interface is so far ahead of most companies, thanks to founder Ray Anderson, that they have already achieved 100% carbon neutrality across their manufacturing and operations world wold. Now, they are on to the next big sustainability program called “Climate Take Back”, which so far has resulted in carpet that sequesters carbon. This Climate Take Back program pushes their designers to change their way of thinking—from how can we create products that are less polluting (less bad)—to thinking about how carpet can be designed to be net positive; to restore the planet.
Carbon Sequestering Carpet | Designed by Interface Carpet
  • 2. Take Charlotte McCurdy, a Yale and RISDE graduate. She designed a raincoat made from marine algae and sequestered carbon.
Carbon Sequestered Rain Coat made from Algae Plastic | Designed by Charlotte McCurdy
  • 3. And, what if I told you that art could clear the air and sequester carbon? Scientist-inventors Anastasia Neddersen and Alina Adams do just that. They design art that sequesters carbon. They started the company Artveoli to design and manufacture wall art that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen, like plants do (sounds like biomimicry, doesn’t it?).
Carbon to Oxygen Filtration Art | Designed by Artveoli

Designing things to sequester carbon is a market-driven solution to climate change.

Carbon neutral product design is a revolutionary act. This market-driven solution (not to mention creative solution!) by-passes policy and politics. It gives us hope. Breakthroughs like this are happening all over the world inside companies and universities in research institutions, in biology and chemistry departments, right now.

In closing, the time is now to take bold, positive action. America was built with a pioneer spirit, let’s continue that legacy and show the world what is possible through a sustainability/climate plan that includes climate sustainable business innovation and incubation.

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Live Creative is a sustainable business, marketing, and shopping hub. Our Creative Studio offers authentic marketing, branding, and sustainable business expertise to ethical, sustainable, and purpose brands. And Sustainable Business Team offers sustainability strategy and goals setting as well as sustainable packaging services. And, our Lifestyle Team curates our global Sustainable Marketplace, the Durango Sustainable Biz Guide, and Get Real—our inspiring Innovation for Good weekly newsletter. Follow us on Insta: @livecreativestudios, like us on Facebook: Live Creative Studio and join our FB Group: Sustainable Business Idea Exchange.

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Filed Under: Blog, Innovation Tagged With: Biomimicry, products that sequester carbon, sustainable product design

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