Re-Shirt

The value of stories and experience. Re-shirt is an online store, where people can sell their shirts. The kicker is that these shirts come with a story of the previous owner. It gets even better, because the shirts are tagged and so if they go back through re-shirt, a story can be added on to it. 

I'm in love with the idea, and am reminded of times I walked through thrift stores making up stories about owners of the items there. This business model is applicable to so many other concepts. I am reminded of a Wine Service Concept that not only sold you a bottle, it also came with a story and information on the wine, so that when it was brought to parties, you had just a bit more than a bottle to share with the host, you had a story.

found via coolhunting

Eco Tourism

Become a responsible tourist. I just wonder how responsible one can be as a tourist? Throwing it out there with some links to some writing on at least two sides of the argument.

World Changing Article , No Impact Man Commentary on Travel, Ecotourism.org, UNEP on the effects of tourism.

I've been a tourist, and I know the effect it has upon me as an individual. It is an amazing opportunity to see how other people live, and how different life can be. I also don't know what effect I've had on them though. Should I have been more careful how I spent my money? On a more definitive measuring scale, there is the carbon footprint of flying half way across the world. So much to consider.

And why do most Ecotourism ads look towards traveling in jungles and safaris?

Corporate Recycling

Many companies are starting to take back their products to recycle them. There are varying degrees of recycling going on. Nike's Reuse A Shoe program doesn't make the kicks you drop off into new shoes, they turn them into rubber playing fields. The end goal is to try and perfect a system of take back for the day when they can up-cycle the shoe you bring back.

Patagonia has been taking back clothes for a while now, with a little drop box in stores. They have various documentation on their website about the various processes they go through to recycle clothes.

Fast Retailing, has a take back program going on in Japan with UNIQLO.

Second Hand Swapping

Second hand swapping is growing more and more popular. I have a feeling this is a result of a combination of people wanting to reduce the number of items they purchase, buy items at lower prices and make a little profit off the things they have and no longer want. I don't have any hard science research behind those statements though, just thoughts to guide further investigation.

Until then, you can try out some second hand swapping at these various places:

Book Mooch, which allows you to swap books with others online.

Swap at Home, allows you to swap anything. It's a little confusing to me how this works.

Ikea furniture swap organized at their store in Amsterdam!

Eco Starter Kits

Want to go green and don't know how, try an Eco-Starter Kit. They're a start, and after someone realizes that everything in the box is available in local stores, what is the next step? It's easy enough for me to say its available at local stores though, as I live in Los Angeles. Which is behind relative to other cities.

Once Sustainability is the mainstream, what will happen to these start kits? What is the next evolution of this? Maybe you can have an empty box shipped to you because as a society people will evolve beyond being consumers. It's a dream I have.

Until then, get your kit at Greensender, Green-Kit, or Go Green Gift.

Sharing

This is another rising trend that I hope goes beyond being just a trend. It's happening on multiple levels in different fields. 

Sharing between individuals.

Sharing in Communities.

Sharing between Companies, particularly with green products and processes in mind. I can imagine the difficulty in creating such alliances, more of them are needed to though. Companies need to lay down their defenses, so that everyone can push forward with these alliances.

Sharing between Countries.

Crowd Funding

Want to own part of a basketball team, football team, or eco clothing line? When big companies are giving you what you want, get a group of people together and fund it yourselves. How is this this different than the stock market, I don't know. It's a question I'm prompted to ask, and probably won't go researching the answer for [there are so many other questions I have about everything else].

Be part of it at these places:

My Football Club

My Football Club

Nvohk

Found via Springwise.com

Small Mart Revolution

Going local is the beginning of something that I hope becomes more than a trend. There's more to it than just buying local though. People need to act together to affect government policy, support local banking and energy generation, and create more self-sufficient communities. Supporting local community business is something that should happen everywhere, so there can be exchanges between communities for various products. So much more than can be explained in a brief post. Learn more at SmallMart.org [and read the book above, its divided into sections that are great for reference, with summaries of what individuals can do at the end of every chapter] and see someone putting it into thought out action at Urban Rustic. 

Air Bed and Breakfast

I first encountered AirBed and Breakfast at Connecting '07. It was formed out a need because the local hotels were getting packed, so the team took advantage of the opportunity and created something fantastic. Now they've expanded it so that anyone can set up an AirBed and Breakfast for other summits and conferences. Their site does a wonderful job of telling their story and how it works, I highly recommend it looking it to see both what they offer, and how to tell your story well.

[image via surf europe mag]

There is a similar project going on over at CouchSurfing.com [thanks Audrey]. A little bit overwhelming compared to AirBed and Breakfast, though its on a much larger scale, over 35,000 cities and 450,000 people! This social experiment is an interesting use of space combined with decentralizing "the hotel" by centralizing it in an online network. This won't replace hotels for various reasons, I imagine it creates richer experiences though.

Bring Your Own Bag

Companies, markets, even cities, states and China are banning plastic bags. New reusable bags seem to appear everyday; baggu, acme, and more available at reusablebags.com. There is good reason to ban plastic bags too, like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. 

[image via yannone blog]

Reading about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is adequate reason to ban plastic bags, among others. I am all for banning plastic bags, though I can't help but feel that all this emphasis on plastic bags and finding solutions to that is taking effort away from other issues in need of consideration. The best way for me to explain this is to an analogy of sustainability to dieting. It is more than something you do for the three months to loose ten pounds. We can't buy the diet cola then drink twice as much, and we can't buy reusable bags and continue to consume as much.

We need to change our attitudes and how we go about living. We have be cautious that we don't equate the solution to not using plastic bags, and then go about consuming without consideration. As a society, people have to use reusable bags, then go about using them less than they were using plastic bags. And lets start seeing reusable bags in more places than just the supermarket, the video store, the hardware store, the printing service bureau, the toy store, and so forth.

Anti-Experience

There is so much emphasis now with companies to create a consumer experience [see also experience design and a great article at Core77]. It is no longer enough for them to sell a product, from store display, to employee interaction and purchasing, then finally opening the box, it all has to carefully thought out and constructed. How much can be controlled though before it becomes to much?

I have become interested in stream of recent articles, in various media, that start to report on people [as consumers and employees] rebelling against the artificial experiences created in interesting ways that I like to call, the Anti-Experience [though, its still an experience, all be it often more funny and hilarious than the one intended].

Listen, watch and read about Anti-Experiences:

Babies Buying Babies from This American Life Matchmakers podcast.

Jackie Mason on Starbucks lack of a real experience.

Wendi Aarons' reaction to a backfired brand experience.