Tag Archives: green

Are you still considered as a hippie?



Yesterday I had an interesting discussion with a designer. He is facing the problem that his colleagues think that he went crazy since he thinks about “green design”. Talking about sustainable or green is not only a trick to sell products to the young LOHAS-community. Normally you have to think about a proper production, a low-energy usage and a simple recycling anway. This is somenthing every student learns in the first lessons. I wonder everytime when people come up with an twenty-year old approach just trying to find new ways to sell their old-fashioned products. Everybody should think about how he can do his way on the sustainable road. And this does NOT mean that we should stop driving cars and flying to Hawaii. I just say that we all should think a bit more how we can really make change happen. And don’t be upset when the world is not chaning today – progress is a bit slow.

Search green and keep updated


Flock released on the Earth Day a “Eco-Edition” of their browser.
Not only that they donate 10% of the revenue generated by searchers to green organisations. They provide a huge variety of information on relevant news, blogs and social-networking.

Learn more or download l

Green IT Trends



The prominence of Green IT is growing every day. According to a new report from Forrester Research one of the five Green IT trends will be the end-of-live managment.

This means that initiatives in the IT will also stretch to other parts of the company. More and more divisions of the companies have ongoing or at least planned “green projects”. Now they merge in most cases to a single company strategy. But not only other parts of the own company are affected – also distributors and resellers should be aware of this trend. Under the life-cycle-approach everybody who is involved in generating a service or the production of a product will be influenced.

Sustainability is one of the major concers in the information and communication technology (ICT). But efforts should not be scaled down to green electricity. Only if I’m aware of the current situation and the coherences, the right decisions can be made. An organisation has to benchmark the current position. Companies don’t have to green their complete organisation at once. The proper starting point and a sophisticated mid-term strategy are crucial. Considerably important is a holistic view on the company processes.
Among those are

  • energy efficiency,
  • resource management,
  • environmental impact,
  • measurement and monitoring systems,
  • IT infrastructure for devices and building,
  • mobility generated communication,
  • regulations and laws.

Only a mature strategy, based on approved regulations, will allow continued focus and improvement.

Source: Greenercomputing.com

Green Money



Modern green lifestyle has a big impact on the economy. Not only that (seemingly) green products were preferred. Also the whole financial sector offers green investment possibilities. More and more customers with long-run personal decisions try to invest their money not only green but also under social or ethnical aspects. Banks and investment companies are offering various products or funds to meet the requirements. Recently I read about an Austrian shoe factory. They offered – beside their nice shoes – also a possibility to invest in their new solar system. In return the customer gets fixed interests over several years. This fits perfectly to their business approach to produce high-value shoes in an eco-friendly production. Particularly companies from the energy and environemt industry are in the focus of investors. It is quite easy these days to get capital also if your idea is not that elaborate. Investors and companies are not only looking for a high income return. They also look for a quite conscience. But this is something which you can still not buy. You have to proof your (green or social) responsibility in many ways – not only by investing in some green start-ups. Without an integral and sustainable strategy with proven results nobody will have success in the long run.