John Rooks did an amazing job presenting a compelling argument on a civic approach to branding that drives behavior change. It was one of the most favorite sessions of last year's LOHAS Forum for me. Check out all the old commercials and movie clips playing behind him. Not many people new it but he had a VJ behind the screen  following his talk and splicing the clips together in real time. Very edgy and very cool! I can't wait to see what John has up his sleeve for the 2012 LOHAS Forum.

John Rooks: Sustainable Economy- LOHAS 2011 from The SOAP Group on Vimeo.

Our economy is slowly but surely heeding the signal that carbon is the new watchword. During the past few years, a steady stream of so-called “biobased” products have been making their way to retail shelves — compostable dinnerware made from corn, plant-based laundry detergents, and bamboo flooring among them. Coke and Pepsi are now competing to be first to market with a soft drink bottle derived entirely from sugarcane or other plant materials.

The emerging biobased economy even has its own label — USDA Certified Biobased, pictured here. It’s part of a federal BioPreferred program designed to help grow “green” jobs, stimulate the rural economy, promote energy independence and prompt a shift to renewable resources from petroleum, helping to manage the carbon cycle.

Launched in February 2011, the label needs a little introduction since the term “biobased”, although familiar sounding, represents more than meets the eye. We advised the USDA on strategic marketing considerations related to the launch of the USDA Certified Biobased label. Here’s a primer — and why you need to be thinking about forming your own biobased strategy during 2012.

What is “Biobased”?
Ask a consumer what “biobased” means and they might respond with somewhat erroneous definitions such as “natural” “biodegradable” or “renewable”.  Consult Webster and you’ll come up short. But the USDA (and federal law) defines it quite specifically as “commercial or industrial products, other than food or feed, that are composed in whole, or in significant part, of biological products or renewable agricultural materials (including plant, animal, and aquatic materials), or forestry materials” — hence the label depicting the soil, sea and the sun.

More important than this definition are the program’s intention — to expand the market for alternatives to petroleum-based products by promoting new uses for agricultural commodities such as bioplastics, biofibers and biobased chemicals. It thus excludes products such as office paper, cotton t-shirts and wooden furniture introduced before 1972. (See BioPreferred.gov for more details.)

Both finished consumer and commercial products as well as intermediate products (e.g., platform chemicals, fibers, etc.) are currently eligible to earn the USDA Certified Biobased label. Standards for “complex” products (consisting of many components, such as automobiles) are being developed. Among the many products that have already earned the label are: Procter & Gamble’s Gillette ProGuide Fusion razor package; Papermate mechanical pencils made from Mirel biodegradable plastic, the Greenware line of cold cups made from NatureWorks’ plant-based Ingeo polymer; and intermediates such as Lenzing’s TENCEL lyocell fiber made from eucalyptus and DuPont’s Sorona polymer. Seventh Generation is so bullish about the label that they have certified over 60 of their household cleaning and personal care products — virtually their entire product line-up.

Why Pursue a Biobased Strategy
The credibility and broadscale awareness of the brand USDA positions labeled products to stand out to consumers. In an age where consumers actively seek environmentally preferable biobased products with comparable price and performance, having the USDA certified biobased label increases shelf appeal. And marketing benefits don’t stop there. The federal government, by law and executive order, now gives purchasing preference to over sixty categories of biobased products. Biobased alternatives can also help businesses to manage volatile petroleum-driven costs and ensure sustainable supplies.

Measurement, Transparency and Product Performance
Not every product made with plants or other renewable resources can qualify for the USDA Certified Biobased label. That’s because the USDA has set strict minimums for biobased content in a wide range of “designated” products. For instance, a lip balm may only need 11% biobased content to qualify, while a disposable food container needs 72%. Any product category for which a target has not yet been established must achieve minimum biobased content levels of 25%. Although this 25% bar may at first glance seem low, keep in mind that minimums are based upon the highest levels of biobased content possible without compromising performance, and to encourage participation in a market now ramping up.

Biobased content is measured using a radiocarbon dating test standard, ASTM D6866. This test measures total carbon content and distinguishes the amount of “new” organic from fossil or petroleum-based carbon. This enables the “new” organic (biobased) carbon to be expressed as a percent of the total carbon. To foster transparency, encourage a level playing field and promote continuous improvement, the USDA Certified Biobased label requires disclosure of the percentage of biobased content for the product and/or package.

Caution Advised When Making Environmental Claims
Marketers may realize advantages if they can substantiate a product’s biobased content in support of environmental marketing claims such as “natural”, “biodegradable”, “renewable” or even “non-toxic”. However, none of these environmental attributes are automatic because of a product’s certified biobased content. Whether a claimed environmental attribute can be supported depends upon the amount of biobased content, as well as how the product was processed and transported, and other life cycle considerations.

Keep in mind too, that much consumer confusion surrounds the biodegradability and recyclability of bioplastics. For instance, some resins may not be biodegradable but can be recycled (like Coke’s bioplastic PET PlantBottle, recyclable with petroleum-based PET).  In addition, some traditional petroleum-based plastics are compostable in industrial (municipal) facilities, but not in backyard composters. And no plastic, biobased or otherwise, is designed to readily biodegrade in landfills.

The revised proposed FTC Green Guides, anticipated in 2012, will likely include specific guidance for biobased marketing and related claims. (We’ll discuss this in more depth in future posts.)

What’s Your Biobased Strategy?
According to Kate Lewis, Deputy Manager of the USDA BioPreferred program, since its introduction in February 2011, over 500 products have been certified to use the USDA Certified Biobased label and over 400 applications are in the pipeline.  She reports that her group is “looking forward to working with proactive brand owners to capitalize upon their certification and really drive this new bio-industrial revolution forward.” Now entering the market, these labelers will enjoy first-mover advantage as well as the opportunity to educate their consumers and other stakeholders about the benefit biobased content brings to their products.

Whether one leads or follows, it’s clear biobased products figure prominently in our future. We predict that all products will ultimately be judged by their carbon content and their potential to effect global climate change. So, credible biobased products are and will continue to be a critical component of a long-range strategy. Short-term motivations for developing a biobased strategy, while company and brand specific, can include minimizing cost, enhancing image, reputation and consumer perception, and avoiding potential regulatory risks. So key questions for every brand owner, product manager and CEO in 2012 are What’s your biobased strategy? Do you have a team in place to bring biobased innovation into your brand and product portfolio?

Jacquelyn Ottman and Mark Eisen wrote this article. They are colleagues at New York-based J. Ottman Consulting, Inc. They advised USDA BioPreferred on the launch of the USDA Certified Biobased label during 2011 and are now advising labelers on how to market their participation in the program. Ms. Ottman is the author of The New Rules of Green Marketing: Strategies, Tools and Inspiration for Sustainable Branding (Berrett-Koehler, 2011). Mr. Eisen is the former environmental marketing director at The Home Depot.

Copyright © 2012 J. Ottman Consulting, Inc.

Everyone lauds eco-labels being put forth by such sustainability leaders as Timberland, HP and Levi’s for transparency and commitment, but are they really all that useful to consumers? Likely not.  These labels may be informative and project credibility, but I believe their usefulness can—and must—be taken up a notch.
 
An eco-label’s greatest value is not its ability to simply convey environmental stewardship; rather, an eco-label’s worth lies in how clearly it relates green qualities to what I call “consumer-useful” information. Labels with consumer-useful information put the practical, valuable aspects of a product’s environmental attributes front and center. Such labels allow consumers to quantify savings or other sources of added value over the course of a product’s entire lifecycle.
 
I believe almost every eco-label up until this point has fallen short of this goal —except for the new EPA fuel-economy label, that is. In terms of consumer relevance, the EPA Fuel Economy label sets the bar for a future of eco-labels that motivate rather than simply educate.
 
Yes, this EPA label can be applauded for its highly thorough information on greenhouse gas and smog ratings, but its real value lies in its ability to show consumers at the point of sale how much money they can save by buying a greener car. Thus, this label’s most consumer-useful information is the data on estimated annual fuel costs and the fuel savings projected over five years of the car’s ownership.
 
However ironic it may seem for a green label, this latter information will likely shift more car sales than the environmental data that’s provided due to its practicality (It’s OK to sneak green past consumers, folks.)
 
It’s the planets, babies and daisies thing all over again.
If our eco-labels only boast of “planet-saving” attributes, their allure will be short-lived and their impact will be limited. In a marketplace proliferated by vague, repetitive green claims, it is no longer enough to merely explain benefits to the planet.
 
Green marketing means enhancing product quality across the board. That translates into additional product benefits and helping consumers interact with their environment in new ways. Saving money, bettering one’s health, or lengthening a product’s lifespan are all consumer-useful attributes that eco-labels must depict explicitly. Only in doing so will our eco-labels engender stronger motivation to change consumption habits—the goal all along.
 
So, what can other green communicators learn from this?
Live and learn. In my book, The New Rules of Green Marketing, I commend the following companies’ eco-labels, but the EPA’s new fuel-economy label introduced in May of this year shows me these companies could do even better.
 
In the book I congratulate Timberland’s Green Index as a watershed mark in transparency, but I now believe it could include more consumer-useful information. Looking at the Green Index with a consumer useful lens make me want to see estimates on how long the boots will last (durability) and whether or not Timberland provides a repair/rebuild service akin to Allen Edmonds, the fancy men’s shoe maker. Consumers must be able to quantify benefits and relate green qualities to personal benefits.
 
HP’s EcoHighlights label sports a number of laudable environmental accolades their printers have earned, but at the end of the day, consumers might be more interested in how that eco-information translates into relevant benefits such as ease of double-sided printing, life expectancy and costs per printed page.
 
I initially fell in love with the “Levi’s Care Instructions for Our Planet” label and heartily congratulate Levi’s for including it on their jeans. However, I now believe that consumers would be more apt to follow the instructions (and the planet would be better served) if the primary benefit was making one’s jeans look good longer.
 
Think—and Work—Holistically
 Ensuring consumer-useful eco-data will take a de-siloing of sustainability and marketing responsibilities. Only when consumer, environmental and technical advocates roll up their sleeves at one table will relevant communications be developed.

Have you ever thought of applying logics of mathematics to the irrationalities of emotion? That is what Chip Conley has done in his latest book Emotional Equations. Chip is fonder of Joie de Vive boutique hotels which is the After experiencing some intense setbacks in his life including collapsing at during a presentation and flat lining for 30 seconds, Chip decided to take a step back and re-evaluate the direction of his life. He realized that he was a workaholic, denying his true self. He took his own research tour that included Bhutan to examine their national happiness index and presented his findings to his hotel staff.  Using brilliantly simple math that illuminates universal emotional truths, Emotional Equations crystallizes some of life’s toughest challenges into manageable facets that readers can see clearly—and bits they can control. Math is all about relations but no one takes the mathematical format and applies it to emotions. Making mathematics out of emotions may seem a counterintuitive idea, but it’s an inspiring and incredibly effective one in Chip Conley’s hands. Conley, dynamic author of the bestselling Peak, began using what he came to call “Emotional Equations” (like Joy = Love – Fear) to help him focus on the variables in life that he could deal with, rather than ruminating on the unchangeable constants he couldn’t, like the bad economy, death, and taxes. With his wit and personal story Conely explains various emotional equations and how they work and how to apply them to everyday life. The book is very inspiring and is a great way to reexamine some of the reasons why we may feel stuck and how we can reconnect with the inspired self if we adjust our emotional equations accurately. Chip will be presenting his thoughts on Emotional Equations at the upcoming 2012 LOHAS Forum in June.

Here is a clip of when he presented 3 years ago at LOHAS.

Contributed by Scott James

This month I spoke with Matt Bogoshian in DC. He is the Senior Policy Counsel for the Environmental Protection Agency. One of the ways I reconcile being apolitical and staying as far away from DC as possible is because I know I have kindred spirits like Matt fighting the good fight there. He works quite a bit with businesses, so I asked him about CSR this month.

Scott: Tell me about a company that is doing something in CSR that would be a model for the future.

Matt: Staples and Wegmans are two recent examples who, in a partnership with us, worked collaboratively with the thermal paper manufacturers to explain that a key to their business model is supplying products that people want to buy because they are safe and healthy. The retailers convinced these suppliers that thermal paper with bisphenol A (BPA) does not meet their needs as it is associated with adverse effects in the environment and may be problematic for people. Thanks to these business leaders, the EPA is now examining 19 alternatives to BPA with the active engagement of the full supply chain.

Scott: So Staples and Wegmans have made a real commitment to that project.

Matt: Yes. I’d like to see a corporate model for the future that incorporates sustainability much more broadly and deeply than what some might consider CSR being capable of doing.  Model companies in the future will be ones that make more money than their competitors by producing products and services that directly or additionally address social and environmental needs.

Scott: Tell me about a specific CSR effort in another country you find inspiring, that could serve as a model for the US.

Matt: Our sustainability efforts with American manufacturers routinely afford us an opportunity to see the positive effects of corporate sustainability efforts both domestically and abroad. Take Steelcase Furniture in Grand Rapids, Michigan as an example. Under our Green Suppliers Network program – which is designed to improve manufacturing supply chains’ process efficiencies and environmental performance – we’ve seen their sustainability efforts result in $1MM+ annual savings for seven of their powder coating lines. Steelcase has now taken these lessons learned and is applying them to their operations in Germany, France, Mexico and China.

We also watch with interest the water conservation efforts of Coca Cola and other large corporations as they demonstrate sound corporate social responsibility for water conservation in India and other countries.

Scott: And how about the other way around? Is anyone internationally watching the US for CSR inspiration?

Matt: Yes, sometimes we learn from our friends abroad about efforts underway here in the US which inspire them, and give us extra energy to expand what we have already begun to do. Brazil, Chile and Singapore were excited to find out from us about one of our newer efforts called E3, which stands for Economy, Energy and the Environment. E3 draws together the resources of five U.S. federal agencies, the utility industry and local communities who then work together to help tune-up factories to reduce wasted time/motion/material/energy to help them become more profitable and sustainable at the same time.

Scott: Wow. That’s a lot of coordination! Tell me another example of what we are doing right here in the US.

Matt: Well, the EPA has a mark, a label called Design for the Environment (DfE). We evaluate products that have been designed or reformulated to contain safer chemicals and allows these products to display the label.

More than 500 companies with serious CSR leadership have reformulated more than 2,700 products to meet EPA’s stringent, science-based criteria so that their products can display the DfE label. They do this because they see a substantial return on their investment and the DfE label opens doors to new markets.

Scott: What new markets?

Matt: States and municipalities adopting green purchasing requirements, retailers who demand greener and safer products to enhance their sustainability profiles, and citizens who want products that are safer for their families and the environment. Companies large and small – from Colgate-Palmolive, Clorox, S.C. Johnson to Jelmar (CLR products), Phurity and Earth Friendly Products – are willing to invest heavily to earn the DfE label. DfE also fuels innovation among chemical manufacturers, such as BASF, Dow, and Akzo-Nobel, who have developed chemical ingredients to meet the stringent DfE criteria for use in DfE-labeled products. So in addition to gaining new market share, the DfE label helps companies meet independent sustainability measures like the Dow Jones Sustainability index.

Scott: OK, let’s talk about where we could improve. Could you illustrate one of our failures and what we can learn from it…where we are not succeeding as much as we could?

Matt: We have collectively failed to build genuine American consensus between citizens, businesses, governments, NGOs and others that ensures America will continue to be the leading economy and example for decades to come. The world is evolving from the agricultural, industrial and information ages toward the age of sustainability and we want to continue to lead in this new age. The good news is that useful lessons can be drawn from the many innovative sustainability efforts already underway by people and organizations throughout the nation.

Scott: In that vein, what question are we not asking ourselves that we should? And what would you imagine the results to be if we did ask ourselves that question?

Matt: We should be asking ourselves, “Is there a smarter, more sustainable way, to make and grow the things we need?” Sticking with the manufacturing sector as an example – with the possible exception of the electronics industry – many manufacturing processes have changed little over time. This may be due to unchanging manufacturing specifications, economic uncertainties or just plain human reluctance to change. Whatever the reason, these barriers are man-made and must be overcome.

If we answer that question with American ingenuity and innovation, we will see our manufacturing sector grow and lead our economy toward the kind of long term strength and prosperity we have come to enjoy for so many decades.

elephant journal is proud to be the official new media partner with LOHAS Forum. Click here for our ongoing LOHAS coverage, and be sure to follow our live coverage on Twitter. [Our editor Waylon Lewis is honored to serve on two panels during this event.]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDkT3fPRn3U[/youtube]

elephant journal:  Tell me about your experience with LOHAS.

Marc Barasch:  I’ve been around since almost the beginning.  New age business had been bifurcated, and suddenly people were beginning to figure out how to put their spiritual ideas into business.  It started with good ol’ tofu companies, small granola businesses just beginning to advertise and act like real businesses.

elej: How have you seen it change over the years?

MB: It’s been a mixed blessing. You lose some of the authenticity of the core intent as companies sell to larger conglomerates.  It’s wonderful thatit propagates the meme and distributes the products at a scale that a small company never could have done.  There are tremendous benefits to that.  But from my somewhat outside observation, you also lose some of the integrity. For example, if you look at Ben and Jerry’s, when they were acquired by Unilever, I believe they intended to keep a very progressive business model, including a fixed ratio of how much top executives were paid. However, that model was not kept.

So the LOHAS community needs to ask:  how can LOHAS not replicate some of the disparities and discontinuities of the prevailing system that are collectively driving us off a cliff?  I think it’s time for companies to not just look at the sustainability and humanity of their organizational development, not just as a CSR add-on or a laudable afterthought, but something that’s included in the raison d’être of the company itself?  I think that’s the question that we need to be asking. What does the company do?  What is the product?  How can we ensure that it’s not increasing consumerism?

How does this push forward a new emergent model, without pushing forward the parameters of a dysfunctional system?  How does it value and push forward what needs to be done in the world?  And quickly?  We need to step out of the matrix and look at this from some zero point and reverse engineer it.  What does the world need, and how do these entities—businesses and corporations—directly serve that need?

In an era where money is de-realized into nothing but bits and bites, a fictive system based on number magic, the priests of the numerate have always worked abstract magic on the masses, and become the elite through magical hand gestures—in this case, tapping on keyboards.

I’m very personally interested in complementary currencies.  Look at Switzerland, for example.  One reason that they’ve been so stable economically is not just because they are neutral, but because they have some very sophisticated complementary currencies to meet social needs, as well.

elej: What do you think we need now?

MB: I think it’s time for radical experimentation, we need hybrid or fusion companies, with nonprofits using the profit system and businesses founded with a social mission first, such as Patagonia.

How do we take on the really large social mission of true transformation, and not just nibble around the edges of real change?  I think that’s not just grandiosity.  It’s necessity.

How do we model as organizations that meet emergent civilization?

elej:  How are you modeling an organization that meets the emergent civilization?

MB: This might sound pretentious, but I really took a cue from something Thomas Keating once said, something to the effect of, “I get up every morning, and I decide what will do the most good.  This simplifies things tremendously.”

6 years ago, when Field Notes on the Compassionate Life came out, I thought, “If I’m talking about compassion, I need to enact it.”  So I stopped my entire career trajectory from that point forward, and asked how I could do the most good and accept whatever answer I was given.  I asked myself, "what does the universe want?" And I’ve followed that question pretty loyally for these last 5 years.

That lead to a lot of coincidences, that eventually led me to planting trees in Ethiopia, to start.  I started the Green World Campaign, and watched it grow into a mostly volunteer-driven organization that’s now operating in 5 countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Mexico, Philippines, India).  We’ve planted close to 500,000 trees.  We’re involved in regenerating communities.  We’re restoring the economy and ecology of the world’s poorest places, doing work that serves people and planet.  In the model of agroforestry that humans and nature have been co-creating since the beginning.

The idea that our relationship to the natural world is to avoid keeping our own destructive hands off it, is inadequate, completely. We’re supposed to work in an integral way together. Renew communities as we renew the environment.

How do we take the holistic model that we all ascribe to philosophically and apply it in the real world, particularly at the bottom of the pyramid, with the people and places that our collective fate is inextricably entwined?  Collective enactment of the global village.

As a critique, we’re very good at created “enlightened, green-gated communities”.  But how does this affect the poorest of the poor?  Trickle down economics.  Everything is connected.  Everything should be seen as interactive parts of a whole.

Reforestation is a quantifiable healing strategy.  We are using interactive new media and new technologies.  It’s part of the DNA of GWC.  We have an alliance with Digital Globe, the largest satellite imaging company, to be able to show donors over time degraded areas turning green.

A tree is a deeply embedded meme in the human psyche.  We’re a tree-planting species.  We always have been.

We’re operating in many domains, whether it’s carbon credits for eco-stoves, creating social enterprises by sourcing commodities like herbs and teas, non-timber forest products, how to partner with indigenous communities in a way that empowers them and also introduces appropriate technology and new agronomic strategies that are harmonious with their traditional agricultural practices.

We are not only providing environmental education, but also working on linking that up with schools in the US, so kids can get a sense of the global village.  I’m big on creating positive feedback loops in a way that empowers global citizens. Doing good doesn’t have to be only through large corporations and large environmental groups.  How do we self-aggregate and do something that we can see that benefits all of us?

How do we all learn from each other?  I’m taking pains to pick and search partners that are mission-aligned and have a real global citizen mindset.  Some sort of understanding of the spiritual underpinnings of human existence, if you will. We’re not aiming to be USAID.  We want to work with the LOHAS community.  We’re propagating ideals in the context of the developing world that are really building global community that includes the poorest of the poor.

Our model is infinitely scalable.  With proper funding, we could scale this up almost immediately.

I call this work Green Compassion.  And the movie “I Am” also relates to this.

elej: Tell me about I Am.

MB: I got a call from Tom Shadyac, who wanted to make a film about the book.  A large part of the film is based on the book.  Here’s a guy who had earned about $2.1B dollars gross for the studios thru his Jim Carey and Eddie Murphy movies.  As much as possible, I want Green World Campaign to be congruent with the ideals presented in the movie and the book. Everything I do is informed by my own healing work and experience, and my background in Buddhism.  It all stems out from that.

Interviewer's note:  And that's what it's all about.

Ms-Green-Bossy-Pants is my new nickname (♥Tina Fey).  

 The recent debate over the higher cost of green products in this economy does not take the bigger picture into consideration. I believe being exposed to toxic chemicals in everything from cleaning products to food (i.e. BPA in canned foods) has much greater health risks, both short and long term. Besides, the solution is easy - do things the old-fashioned way - organically and naturally! Lemons, vinegar, baking soda and other natural cleaning products are inexpensive and effective. Fresh food is much healthier and tastier than canned. To me, doing things in sync with nature has always made good sense, and living in a healthy non-toxic home… PRICELESS! 

 My next goal is trying to eliminate plastic from my life (admittedly no easy task)!

However, sometimes it’s easy being green, and cleaning in a healthy way is one of them.

 Here’s to a simpler, cleaner life, (except I am not writing from a mega mansion in Beverly Hills, but Thank you Laurie David for also being an eco-maniac). 

Happy Clean Green Home Blessings, ~ Cheryl Terrace, VITAL DESIGN LTD 

 The process of house-cleaning one's cluttered "furnished soul," as Cummings would put it, involves throwing open the doors and windows to the tentative, "perhaps hand" of spring, which glides in,

 arranging and changing placing

carefully there a strange

thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully  ~ E. E. CUMMINGS

1. 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do to Save the Earth: Check out this book that tells kids the many ways they can contribute to saving the Earth.
2. The Giving Tree: Shel Silverstein’s book teaches kids about the relationship between kids and the forest.
3. My Bag and Me!: My Bag and Me! can teach your child to be eco-friendly by using reusable bags.
4. A Drop Around the World: Kids can follow a drop of water around the world in this book.
5. The Great Kapok Tree: In The Great Kapok Tree, a man changes his mind about chopping down a large tree in the Amazon when he hears the pleas of the animals.
6. George Saves the World by Lunchtime: George saves the world with simple everyday actions in this book.
7. The Tree in the Ancient Forest: In this book, Carol Reed-Jones writes about the web of plants and animals in the world.
8. Earth-Friendly Crafts for Kids: Here you’ll find 50 awesome recycled crafts projects.
9. The Forever Forest: Kids save a tropical treasure in The Forever Forest.
10. Charlotte’s Web: Charlotte’s Web teaches animal appreciation, life cycles, and ecosystems.
11. Green Wise Kids: Jean Clausen’s book teaches kids about doing simple things to improve the environment, sharing age appropriate activities.
12. The Empty Lot: This book’s hero sells off an empty lot, but after consideration, learns about all of the natural elements that make the lot more valuable than he thought.
13. My Favorite Tree: Kids can choose their favorite North American tree in My Favorite Tree.
14. One Well: One Well tells the story of water on Earth.
15. The Lorax: The Lorax offers kids an ecological warning about the disregard for the Earth’s environment.
16. We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers: These kids recycle their toys instead of throwing them away, and they even get their classmates involved.
17. Herb the Vegetarian Dragon: In this book, kids will read about eating vegetarian through Herb, the vegetarian dragon.
18. Oil Spill!: Kids can learn about the ecological damage of oil spills in this book.
19. Earth Book for Kids: Earth Book for Kids has activities to help heal the environment.
20. Wonderful Nature, Wonderful You: Wonderful Nature, Wonderful You tells the lessons of nature and the animal kingdom.
21. What’s It Like Living Green?: Kids teach kids how to live green in this book.
22. The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle: This plastic bottle helps kids learn about recycling from a new perspective.
23. Recycled Crafts Box: Kids can make crafts out of recycled materials using this book.
24. The City of Ember: In The City of Ember, the heroes of the book live in a world run on hydro power.
25. Giggles the Green Bean: Giggles the Green Bean learns environmentally friendly lessons and transforms his stinky town to green in this book.
26. The Curious Garden: The Curious Garden tells a story of a little boy who becomes a city gardener in an urban, factory town.
27. Dear Children of the Earth: Mother Earth writes to children to get their help in this book.
28. World Beneath Our Feet: Kids can read about the world that exists in the soil in World Beneath Our Feet.
29. The Berenstain Bears Don’t Pollute (Anymore): This family of bears learns about why we need to mend our polluting and wasteful ways.
30. Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?: Kids can read about the dangers of global warming in Why Are the Ice Caps Melting?

by Scott James

Steve Forbes recently wrote about the U.S. system of higher education in an aptly titled piece, Dinosaur U. He was responding to Universities on the Brink. an article by Boston University School of Management Dean Emeritus Louis Lataif. Both cite a looming education bubble, similar to the fun (for some) Dot Com bubble and not-so-fun (for just about everyone) housing bubble.

One takeaway from the two articles is the lack of ROI for the typical four-year college degree. Universities are in the midst of a brand crisis, trying to earn their premiums from a base of prospective clients that is beginning to ask hard questions.

To be fair, it is difficult to place a dollar value on many aspects of a university education, such as the collegial environment, co-learning from the other members of your cohort,direct interaction with the teachers, job placement post-graduation, as well as the networking aspect of belonging to a specific alumni group (Go Irish!).

Taking an online course, purchasing a self-paced DVD, or absorbing a specific topic via the Khan Academy does not get you those experiences, nor allow you to tap into a helpful alumni network when looking for work or recruiting others to join your team. But there are new schools and new teaching techniques underway that are trying to deliver the best of both worlds.

When it comes to specialized degrees, like a masters in electrical engineering or an MBA, the lack of ROI may not apply. Startup executive MBA programs such as Presidio in San Francisco and Bainbridge Graduate Institute (BGI) in Seattle allow students to learn at a distance through a robust extranet during the school year, but still bring them together for face-to-face time once a month. But at roughly $60,000 for the two-year MBA, they are not cheap, which forces them to innovate in other ways to earn that premium.
This new set of schools is increasing the value of their delivered content via a Professor + Practitioner teaching model. This P+P teaching team combines a full academic PhD (required for accreditation) with an expert practitioner (who does that type of work as a day job). Think back to the Operations class you took; how much more valuable would it have been to hear both the viewpoints of an academic plus a manager with 30 years of experience in the trenches at General Electric?

Gifford Pinchot, Co-Founder and President of BGI, explains: “The traditional educational model is broken because the focus of traditional universities is not education but rather scholarship and research. Teaching is considered a distraction from the real work of a professor. For-profit universities focus on education, which greatly lowers their costs, but many non-profits like BGI do this as well. We need a new business model for research and scholarship which is not funded by tuition.”

Practitioners need to have a Masters as their terminal degree. They are typically consultants, retired executives, or entrepreneurs with enough flexibility in their work schedule to allow them the required interaction with students, both in-person and online. The clients (graduate students) seem to value the content created and delivered by this P+P team more highly than a pure academic version. There’s no reason not to extend this same P+P approach back into four-year universities and high schools.

Flying in the face of this teaching innovation, as recently noted by Forbes Publisher Rich Karlgaard, are government regulations stifling our ability to get more of these practitioners into our high schools. We need more teachers, especially those with industry experience, at the high school level, to encourage and equip young people to become entrepreneurs. These antiquated requirements are detrimental to our school system and the next wave of our economy.

Not everyone is meant to – or aspires to – attend a four-year degree program. In fact, some of the brighter high school students are wise enough to see the amount of debt they would be saddled with after a four-year program, and take a pass on it. As more motivated and smart students opt out of the four-year college program altogether, the idea of a re-skilling college seems more viable.

Think of a reskilling college as a new, hyper-local version of the defunct trade school, focused on teaching the specific skills needed to thrive as entrepreneurs in this age, tailored to the unique aspects of the bioregion (Washington State companies will be different from Florida companies). The world may currently be flat, but when cheap energy goes away, life (and our companies) will become much more regionally focused.

So how can we – the Forbes community – support and encourage these new teaching innovations (Professor + Practitioner teams, regional reskilling colleges, extensive use of extranets for distance learning, plus much more) to revamp America’s educational system?

Full disclosure: I have direct involvement in both styles of American universities; I teach at the executive MBA program Bainbridge Graduate Institute and serve on the University of Notre Dame business advisory council.

Spending over $300+ billion dollars annually, the demographic called LOHAS, continues to change the way marketers conceptualize the 4 P's of marketing. LOHAS is Lifestyles of health and sustainability. The consumer group identifying themselves with LOHAS are a megatrend not to be overlooked or taken for granted. Consumers have traditionally expected governments to take the lead in protecting the environment, but now they are looking more to the corporate world to take action, rather than individuals. Increasingly, Asians want economic growth but believe it should be achieved through greener industry Market research conducted in 2010 revealed an untapped multi-billion dollar demand from households with significant purchasing power that relates to exactly this. THE LOHAS Asia and NMI research on China, for example, questioned 1,000 consumers across the five cities of Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Guangzhou and Shanghai. Results showed that 88% agreed that it is important for companies to be mindful of their impact on society. With China having overtaken Japan as the world’s second-biggest economy, the LOHAS consumer demand is on the rise month by month and there is an urgency for the market to respond. Asia isn’t regarded as a pioneer on the CSR front, but in recent years, action on CSR is growing amongst Asian firms. In Hong Kong, Malaysia, China, and more recently Singapore and Thailand, stock exchanges are playing an increasing role in raising the visibility of businesses and encouraging reporting on sustainability. However, despite years of education on the issue, businesses across Asia still carry the common misperceptions of CSR being equivalent to philanthropy, which is what you do with your profits while CSR is what how you go about making those profits. Given the real concern from knowledgeable consumers, this also means companies have to deliver more than just lip-service and stand true to what they claim. Governments are also helping to develop CSR practices, such as in Singapore with the Green Mark Scheme for buildings as a key initiative to promote sustainability in the building sector. The Singapore Government is also pursuing sustainable fashion as another sector, and launching new subsidies for industry training.
 
Results of LOHAS Market Research 2010
In January 2010 LOHAS Asia partnered with The Natural Marketing Institute in pioneering LOHAS Consumer Research in Asia-Pacific, conducting an online survey across 10 countries. More than 18,000 consumers were surveyed, to provide in-depth research on the LOHAS consumer and marketplace across the following countries: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand. Some of the highlights show very real desire for sustainably-made products in Asia, with Indonesia, China and India leading the way. As always, we have to look closely at China and India as the biggest market opportunities, and here we have high numbers seeking sustainably-manufactured products. This is a clear message and opportunity to manufacturers but even more encouraging, they will buy them if they are more available and most are willing to pay a 20% price premium for them. By contrast, there are significantly fewer consumers willing to pay a 20% premium in Korea, Singapore and Australia. But, these are rich economies, so the market opportunity per share point is higher and worth chasing. In one of the clearest messages from this research, consumers in Asia-Pacific are prepared to boycott brands they feel are over-packaged. This behaviour contrasts with experience in other markets in the West, where the likelihood of over-packaging actually damaging purchases is low. This is an area where the biggest markets show the most extreme reaction to the question, with China, Indonesia and India leading the way with a strong likelihood to boycott over-packaged brands.

In April 2010, LOHAS Asia Pte. Ltd launched The HUB, a business network for companies and service providers in tune with LOHASian values to network, market and collaborate in new opportunities and joint-ventures.

Contributed by Liz Smailes, Communications Director, Asia Pacific LOHAS

Here are some LOHAS trends to consider that we feel will be impactful for the next year in the area of health and wellness. Ive done some research and here are my list of top wellness trends to consider significant in the LOHAS market.

From Wellbeing Escapes Top Wellness Trends of 2011

From Anti-Ageing to Healthy-Ageing –there will be a resurgence by destination resorts and fitness outlets to develop comprehensive programs to help us age healthily.  The focus isn’t about reducing wrinkles but about disease prevention and health enhancement.   Personal medical evaluations, usually taken through blood tests, are followed by personalized health plans that include treatments, education and actions that will help achieve optimum health and boost energy.  Furthermore, there will be more of an emphasis on wellness facilties to provide services to relieve aches and pains that are inherent with physical activity rather than relax and de-stress. This again underlines a change in attitude towards a healthy and active aging process rather than anti-ageing.

Wellness Through Nature - This can take the form of fitness, holistic actions, meditation, and treatments.  Rather than putting people indoors to carry out their wellness program, many hotels spas and wellness resorts will be further focusing on being paid guests to engage with the natural resources and exclusivity of their locations.  Currently there are groups that provide hiking in mountains, yoga in the gardens, fitness programs that encompass kayaking, sea-swimming, Jungle gyms, outdoor rock climbing walls, challenging mountain biking.  This is predicted to become more creative and expand with meditation walks along beautiful beaches and landscapes, tree-top spas, treatment locations where you can hear the sound of the ocean and birdsong – no more air-conditioned window-less treatment rooms playing CDs with nature music on repeat cycle.

Bringing out the Monk in You - The global recession has not helped the work life balance debate.  It is now about survival of the fittest with people subdue worried about losing jobs in this cost cutting environment.  Physical fitness is now firmly established and accepted as stress busting and increasing energy, but mental fitness is increasingly being recognized as equally vital. Meditation is no longer viewed as a spiritual pastime for monks or lentil-eating, sandal- wearing hippies but being used as a daily tool to help with stress and efficiency.  Major hotels, spas and wellness resorts are counting meditation instruction as part of stress reduction programs and activity schedules to help people learn this valuable tool. Again, it is all about quality, quality, quality – it takes years of instruction to be able to teach this technique effectively, so make sure you learn from an authentic and experienced teacher.

Value and Return on Investment - Although the deals are still out there they are gradually decreasing as the economy slowly turns around and hotels and airlines start to focus on increasing yields again. The keywords are "Value" and "Return on Investment". As the spa going population becomes more sophisticated and experienced they will focus more on value rather than the cheapest price, demanding more from their experience. The cheapest spa will not necessarily bring them their return on investment in terms of measurable health benefits and long lasting results on their return.

From The American Council on Exercise (ACE) Top Fitness Trends of 2011

Stress Reduction Through Fitness - With the increased knowledge of how stress negatively affects the body, gyms and clubs will start offering wellness programs so their members develop effective strategies for managing their stress levels. Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, and basic stretching classes are expected to draw more people looking for ways to de-stress. But working up any type of sweat will work. The same fitness instructors who want you to feel the burn now want to help your body—and mind—heal. Look for therapeutic workouts, like New York based Equinox’s “IntenSati,” which uses personal affirmations, and “Thread,” where core work and body-awareness techniques “unlock muscular inhibition.” Also on the horizon: a fascination with supportive aerial yoga and fitness-meets-life-coaching workshops.

Technology Becomes a Support Resource - The release of interactive fitness video games will see more people get off their couches and try new ways to be active in the home. The Sony Wii and Microsoft Kinect are scratching the surface of ways to engage a person’s whole body into a video game with jumps and swings or running in place. The sophistication of these games makes the experience both entertaining and physically challenging.

Corporate Wellness -  Whether it is through the hiring of in-house personal trainers or discounts and incentives offered to employees that join a health club, corporate wellness programs will emerge country-wide to help encourage healthy lifestyles among workers, especially time-crunched consumers.

Youth-Based Fitness -  Expect to see more youth-focused classes and clients popping up in gyms thanks to the national attention and focus on childhood obesity.  Schools and fitness centers will also incorporate more exercise curriculum for the youth population and, as such, take advantage of ACE’s Operation FitKids curriculum, which has recently been revamped and expanded with a new program targeting students in grades 6-8.

From SpaFinder Top Spa trends of 2011

The Science of Wellness - Is there scientific proof that massage reduces stress? Are mud-packs and mineral-baths medically proven to alleviate pain? Is ear candling proven to remove ear wax? The answers: yes, yes and no.  Get ready for a new era where more questions about the effectiveness of wellness therapies and products will be asked, and where these questions will get answered more transparently, as the emphasis on evidence-based medicine and the “science behind spa” heats up. For example the recent New York Times article, “A Good Massage Brings Biological Changes Too,” reporting on a Cedars-Sinai study that revealed a 45-minute massage resulted in a significant decrease in stress hormones, while boosting immunity. As so many more hospitals not only co-opt the “look of spa,” but also directly incorporate spa/wellness therapies on site, consumers will have powerful visual evidence of “medicine” validating “spa.”

As these initiatives and forces accelerate, the benefits of wellness will be increasingly not only heard, but also believed by more LOHAS consumers (often desperately) seeking health alternatives — by doctors who prescribe, by public officials who legislate and by insurers who reimburse. These nascent evidence-based initiatives should ultimately prove the bedrock for future, perhaps unimagined, industry growth.

I scanned the web for some of the latest food trends and here are a few that caught my eye. They are from a variety of sources including Rachel Ray, Mintel, The Food Channel and Good Food World.

Organic Gardening and Urban Agriculture
Canned, tinned and frozen foods are likely to benefit from consumers’ bunker mentality and the search for stability in a tumultuous world. Certainly there is greater awareness that freezing foods early locks in their nutritious benefits. The continuance of record setting seed sales from garden centres and supermarkets indicates the continued trend towards self-sufficiency such as organic gardening and herb window boxes. Market research firm Packaged Facts in January 2009 estimated that the organic lawn and garden sector reached $460 million in retail sales in 2008, a gain of 12% over 2007. This trend is also created from the foods scares we saw in 2010 of contaminated tomatoes, peanut butter and eggs. People want to take control of what they have on their tables. This also develops self-customization of food. Home canning lets you control the amount of sodium, sugar, or spice. You can season those fruits and veggies to suit your own taste or dietary needs. You can make salsas or pasta sauces that are as spicy or mild as your family likes them, or as low in sodium as your doctor advises. Plus – homemade handmade treats are great inexpensive gifts to others in a time when money is tight.

Role Reversal in Kitchens
The economic slump has hit men hard in traditionally male dominant fields such as finance and construction. Women in the workforce are now better qualified, command higher salaries and work longer hours – which mean men need to do more of the shopping. Plus, many women are employed in fields that are expected to thrive the next few years.  This is leading to a new balance of power and the rise of the “Sheconomy”. About a third of women outearn their husbands according to Reach Advisors. Men will do a lot of bread buying instead of bread winning. Compared to 1970, men have tripled the amount of time they’re spending in the kitchen. The rise of the male metrosexual in recent years may have something to do with it as well. With the success of cooking shows featuring male cooks or hosts have made it more than permissible for men to don an apron; it’s actually become quite fashionable to do so while chopping vegetables and experimenting with obscure spices and exotic ingredients. But as the jobless rate continues to hover near 10 percent, look for more men to cook, not just for fun, but also because their wives will be working late to help fuel the Sheconomy.

Rise in Food Oriented Apps
As smart phones become commonplace more apps will be available for people to find local organic restaurants and grocery stores, Open Table helps reserve a table at a restaurant. Groupon provides specialty coupons to your email inbox, Facebook or Twitter profile from local stores. With the recession not likely to change soon consumers are hungry for bargains, and the new deal-oriented apps let you find them without the need for clipping coupons. It’s the new weapon of choice for the bargain hunter stalking his dinner prey. New apps allow customers to scan barcodes on products for instant savings or by checking in on social networking sites like Foursquare and connecting with other shoppers we’re becoming rewarded in more ways than ever!

Supporting Local growers and Specialty Shops
More people want their local economies to succeed and are choosing to support local farms and restaurants. For many of us, eating honest, fresh and real food has taken on a higher priority in our lives. More consumers are willing to take the time to visit specialty shops for foods of a higher quality and relationship with the merchant. There is a movement that is returning to neighborhood butcher shops, specialty bread stores, and boutique shops for buying food needs. Grocery stores aren’t going away but there is a surge in farmer markets with one-on-one relationships. These may cost a bit more but is attractive for people with the time and money to do it, such as empty nesters and those young singles we used to call yuppies. This trend is about growing and tending—if someone, somewhere, is personally growing and tending to this product, as opposed to packing and sorting on the assembly line, then it’s local. It means someone is personally committed to it. Someone has made sacrifices to bring it to market.

Rise of Superfoods for a Healthy Active Life
Boomers will be seeking natural solutions for energy, health and even sex from cultural foods such as acai, gogi berry, mangosteen and nutmeg.  Many boomers will continue to work—and they’ll demand foods that provide the energy and vitality to get them through the day. And, as sales for Viagra prove, boomers want to stay in shape for nighttime activities, too.  People are working longer into retirement, there is a greater need for products geared towards vitality and health in a more senior workforce. Products such as energy drinks so far have been targeting the younger demographic. Get ready for them and others to be targeted to an older crowd.

Obesity is the New tobacco
We all know the obesity epidemic is rampant in the U.S. More awareness of issues have been brought up by efforts from Jamie Oliver and The Biggest Loser. But despite these efforts it doesn’t look like it is slowing down. There is more social pressure on people to eat healthily. Obesity is being called “the new tobacco” as people are unhappy about their taxes being used to pay for gastric band surgery. Fast food restaurants are facing a decision as to whether they cater to it, or try to counter it with healthier alternatives. We may see some brands embrace gluttony as we saw with the KFC Double Down sandwich. However doing too much of this can damage a brand. Other companies like McDonalds are re-designing their restaurants to have a healthier appeal but they still revolve around essentially unhealthy burgers. But there have been some noticeable changes in food options in places like airports where they are providing healthy food options such as salads, fruits and vegetables and organic chocolate. We are also seeing the rise of natural sweeteners such as agave and stevia in brands such as Fanta and Odwalla We will see fast foods adjust to the demands that their foods are unhealthy in order for them to stay relevant to consumers.

GMO Awareness
With food scares continuing many people have taken it upon themselves to investigate sourcing and ingredients of products and have become more aware of genetically modified foods (GMOs). Despite the claim from companies like Monsanto that GMOs are sustainable and are the only way to feed the world’s growing populations, opponents contest that they do more harm to the environment, farming economies and our health than good. Books such as the Unhealthy Truth and websites such as the Non GMO project that provide scientific data and ways for consumers to identify and shop for non GMO foods. Companies such as Horizon Dairy, Whole Foods 365 private label, and Natures Path are now using labeling to identify themselves as non GMO ingredient products. Unfortunately it is an uphill battle. However there has been a rise in superweeds – weeds resistant to pesticides – and increasing evidence of biotech companies inflating yield estimates and the industry on its heals and plummeting stock.  But GMO products are currently ubiquitous in our food supply. If you are not choosing organic or if it doesn’t say non-GMO on the label, chances are your food contains GMOs, as it is estimated that 80% of conventional grocery products now contain GMO ingredients.

Organic Acreage Continues to Grow
Compared to overall acreage dedicated to conventional agriculture production, the amount of land under organic production is still very small. But it is growing. In the first wide-scale survey of organic farming, published this past year, USDA counted 14,540 U.S. farms and ranches that were under organic production, comprising 4.8 million acres of land in 2008. Certified U.S. organic cropland acreage between 2002 and 2008 averaged 15% annual growth. Globally, organic acreage grew by 9% in 2008, with more than 35 million hectares in organic production. The highest increases came in Latin America and Europe, according to the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) in Switzerland.


BPA Awareness
2010 saw a rise in concen with BPA (Bisphenol A) used in containers for food and drinks - mostly canned goods. BPA was developed in the 1930s, and commercial uses exploded in the 1950s after scientists discovered its ability to make plastics more durable and shatterproof. BPA is used in thousands of consumer goods, including compact discs, dental sealants, and credit card and ATM receipts, but health advocates say they are most concerned about BPA's presence in plastic food containers, bottles and the epoxy linings of metal cans because it can leach into food and beverages. It is found in the urine of more than 90 percent of the U.S. population, according to federal estimates. Recent FDA research has linked the chemical to cancer, heart disease, Type-II diabetes, obesity, sexual dysfunction and early-onset puberty. FDA officials said they are especially concerned about its developmental  impact on fetuses, infants and young children. Various indepented tests have shown that there are higher levels of BPA exposure than the FDA reports in canned goods. Despite these findings there is resistance by Congress to ban it. As consumers and new parents become more aware of BPA they will seek alternatives to plastic and canned goods such as glass bottled or frozen foods.  Concerns such as BPA will also drive people to freeze and can their own foods and shop locally as previously stated.


Sustainable Packaging on the Rise
Despite the failure of the biodegradable but ultra-loud SunChip bag, there is more interest in biodegradable packaging options and less packaging to emphasize sustainability.  Pike Research estimates that eco-friendly packaging will nearly double in revenues between 2009 and 2014, rising from $88 billion to $170 billion. According to Mintel there will be a greater focus on reduced packaging that promotes environmental responsibility in combination with uniqueness, such as boxless cereal bars or more cereals without the inner bag. Paper Mate recently introduced biodegradable pens with compostable outer shells that break down into organic matter within a year. Following a more traditional route, Kraft Foods plans to reduce its carbon footprint in 2011 by decreasing waste from its plants, eliminating 150 million pounds of packaging material, and cutting CO2 emissions by 25 percent.

Do you have others that you feel I have missed or wish to add? I’d love to hear them.