by Staff Writers on Apr 15, 12:22 PM
Google's braintrust won't tell. Sure they make a commitment to reducing the company's carbon footprint, but they aren't sharing its current output (out of fear that competitors will use that information to calculate how many servers they have). But there are ways of finding this information - at least roughly. And with the help of ERM, a UK-based environmental consultancy, we attempt to do just that.
by John Capone on Apr 15, 12:17 PM
Walk into any Whole Foods. The codified ecocorrect corporate mandate as exemplified in the stores' design could not be clearer. You nearly expect to see Al Gore strumming an acoustic guitar singing ecoballads, akin to some sort of crusading Raffi, while floating leprechauns spew mouthwash into the air like verdant cherubs. It's the Green movement as most Americans can understand it - through buying more stuff they don't need. It's the anti-materialist socialist activist wearing the matching Che Guevara hat and T-shirt to the mall.
by Guy Barnett on Apr 15, 12:10 PM
Remember the ozone hole? That rather large area that made all the Aussies wear sun-block for the first time in their lives? Well, thanks to changes in regulations controlling CFCs and public awareness, it's actually shrinking. It won't be fully recovered until 2050, by most estimates, but it's an excellent example of how government action, corporate initiative and individual responsibility can join together to actually do something positive. It's small steps like these that led our small creative shop, The Brooklyn Brothers, to ask what we could do.
by J Mitchell McMahon on Apr 14, 6:20 PM
After a long quarantine on the blue horizon, the sustainable-business era is at last pulling into port. The dream team of environmental conservation, economic growth and social responsibility might trump good intentions. But this vessel has been called a party boat, a green-painted oil tanker, an optical illusion, a false religion and even the future of civilization. Harbormasters weren't sure if this ship would ever drop anchor. But the shoreline is teeming with global-warming catastrophists, climate-change opportunists and clean-tech speculators. The arrival of sustainability is no longer in doubt.
by Josh Lovison on Apr 3, 12:45 PM
Wikipedia's founder, Jimmy Wales (who prefers to go by Jimbo), is quite the guy. He lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, grew up in Alabama, and he has 196 MySpace friends.* Once, he asked to be put back in a friend's "Top 8" using a Wikipedia joke.* He listens to They Might Be Giants. Being a father is the most important thing for him right now, though he'd also like to travel the world, and while at it, meet Linus Torvalds. So far he's visited London, India and Paris. When he was in India, he drank Kingfisher Beer.* He reads Wired's …
by Lynn Russo Whylly on Apr 2, 3:17 PM
Ask Marilyn Batchelor what's wrong with ads that cater to the African American community and she'll likely reply, "Where do you want me to begin?"
by Laurie Sullivan on Apr 2, 3:14 PM
Are you ready for some hockey? The National Hockey League (NHL) is trying to steal a little of the NFL's thunder. And they've ripped a couple of pages from the NFL's playbook (and used some of the same marketers) to do so. One of the key moves by the NHL was bringing in John Collins to head its marketing effort. Collins spent 15 years in the NFL's marketing offices and was instrumental in the launch of NFL Networks online.
by Courtney Humiston on Apr 2, 3:12 PM
The battle for Middle Earth may be over, but it seems that the battle for its revenue may never end. The trust that manages the estate of J.R.R. Tolkien and HarperCollins, the Lord of the Rings trilogy's original publisher, is waging war against New Line Cinema, the distributor of the films, claiming $150 million dollars in damages. According to the complaint, New Line has failed to pay the Tolkien heirs anything from the revenues they have received since purchasing the rights from Miramax Films.
by John Capone on Apr 2, 3:10 PM
The short answer is, we don't really know and won't hazard a guess. But the press release from T-post, the responsible party, tells us, "Subscribing to T-post is a lot like having a subscription to a magazine but instead of receiving magazines in your mailbox - you receive T-shirts." So then, not at all like subscribing to a magazine. The concept is that the designs on the chest are an interpretation of a current news story, which is summarized in text on the inside of the shirt, so that you can opine like landed gentry when some hapless sucker asks …
by John Capone on Apr 2, 3:08 PM
Don't let the steely robotic gaze and fake Stepford smile fool you: Despite a nearly unshakable knack for oozing creamy insincerity, Martha Stewart is not perfect. Note the faux pas: As we wrote last month, her Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia publication Blueprint recently went green (aka stopped printing). A letter sent to subscribers meant to notify them of the greening of another company publication, the Martha Stewart Newsletter, started off, "We regret to inform you the Martha Stewart Living has ceased publication." Then the letter goes on in Dadaist fashion to tell its no doubt confused yet relieved readers, "We …