Categories
Brands Environment London

This Because Pop Up

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For the next three weeks, This Because has set up shop in Soho. Stocking only beautifully designed, sustainable products, you’ll find all kinds of gems. Like tote bags made from old bouncy castles. Or this beer made from bread waste. Pop in, have a peruse and say hello to the wonderful Zoë, the brains behind this fantastic business.

Find This Because at 18 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 8HS. Opening times: 10-8pm Monday – Saturday | 11 – 6 Sundays until 14th December. 

Categories
CSR Environment Inspiration

Making Profit and a Difference

Everytime you spend money you’re casting a vote for the kind of world you want”. – Anna Lappe

The investment industry is changing. Sustainable investment is the fastest growing segment of the investment industry –  and its worth 3 trillion dollars.  Audrey Choi makes a compelling case about why we should ‘vote’ with our investment dollars. 

Categories
Brands Environment Social Innovation Technology

Fairphone 2

Fairphone are on a mission: disrupt the mobile phone sector. No big deal, right? Whilst this may seems like a massive feat,  competing with the Apples and Samsungs of the world,  they’re totally doing it. With 60,000 phones of their first model sold – many of which were pre-ordered with a long wait time – it’s obvious that there’s demand.

Categories
community Environment Food Technology

OLIO

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In my last year of highschool, some friends and I volunteered at a soup kitchen in downtown Hamilton. One evening I served a man who said  “You can only be sure of two things in life: one, you need to eat and two, you’re going to die. So be sure that when you’re older you work in the food or funeral sector. That way you’ll be sorted for life”.  It was incredibly sage advice that I’ve never forgotten (and I do indeed work in the food sector now).

Categories
Books Environment Fashion Inspiration

Conscious Consumption

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Naturally drawn to Sarah Lazarovic’s book A Bunch of Pretty Things I did Not Buy because of its neon orange cover and hand written type, I almost read the whole book in the shop (not because I didn’t intend on buying it) because it sucked me in. Lazarovic takes you on a journey – her journey tracking the relationship she has with stuff and her decision not to buy things. Rather than reiterate a narrative around how bad fast fashion is for this world, she crafts a charming and powerful manifesto “The buyerarchy of needs” illustrated through personal anecdotes and a guide to buying things that are made to last, encouraging readers to think before they spend.

Categories
Canada Charity community Environment healthcare

Lucky Iron Fish

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There’s a proverb that gets used a lot in community development: “give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime.” Canadian based company Lucky Iron Fish inadvertently subvert this saying with their simple yet life-changing tool – a fish capable of supplying a family with 75% of their daily iron intake. By purchasing one lucky iron fish, two families in Cambodia will be given a fish of their own to drop into a pot whilst cooking, facilitating the release of iron into their meal.

Categories
community Environment Hamilton Projects I like

The littlest of libraries

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The Little Free Library began as one man’s tribute to his mother, a former school teacher, and has since become a global movement. Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin built a small replica of a school house, filled it with books and placed it in front of his house for friends and family to enjoy. Now there are more than 15,000 registered sites around the world, enabling anyone to create their own book collection for their community.

Categories
Charity community Environment Illustration

Rivers of Flowers

London based Illustrator Hiromi Suzuki has collaborated with the Rivers of Flowers to make this lovely little animation. Without being preachy or instilling guilt, this video highlights the importance of wildflowers to ecosystem function. Flowers = pollen = bees = food = life.

Categories
Design Environment Projects I like

A Clever Way to Store a Bike

This simple clip designed by Hurdler Studios can solve a lot of storage problems. And hopefully help more people commute by bike. I’ve just backed them on Kickstarter and think you should too (and not just because they’re Canadian).

Categories
advertising Charity Design Environment Inspiration

29 Posters for the Planet

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This month Do The Green Thing in collaboration with WWF UK and Pentagram have launched 29 Posters for a Planet, a collection of inspiring posters made by world class creatives in support of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is the world’s largest mass participation event, where people switch their lights off between 8:30-9:30pm on March 29th to show their commitment to the planet.

This year’s contributor list is impressive. Supporters include Roald Dahl childrens’ book illustrator Sir Quentin Blake, Obama’s 2012 Design Director Josh Higgins, fashion designer Paul Smith, Google Labs Creative Director Tom Uglow and many more.