Groundbreaking clothing design company Nau, with its uncompromising commitment to environmental and social responsibility, has sadly closed up shop as of today, Friday May 9th. PSFK interviewed VP of Marketing Ian Yolles a couple of months ago, and we were moved by his description of the company’s values, goals, and aesthetics. We also thought they had a really good business model going - guess in the current retail market you never know.

If you want to show one last glimmer of support, and get some really cool sustainable clothes at a great price, all Nau merchandise is now 50% off on their website.

Related PSFK article: Interview with Ian Yolles

Google and Kingsoft have just released a free translation software called “Google Kingsoft PowerWord.” The software offers Japanese, Chinese and English translation and audio pronunciation.

This is first time Google has released a co-branded product and the two companies intend to split advertising revenue generated by the free product.

The product can be downloaded here.

[via China Snippets]

Related Story: This Makes Us Feel All Warm and Fuzzy: Google Chat Translation Bots

Woodland Burial Parks situated in the north London suburb of Epping Forrest offer a green alternative to burial. Plots are available in circular groups around selected trees amongst the quiet tranquility of a mature English Woodland. Coupled with the notion of putting back what we take out, the Parks offer a very natural and pure concept, almost the way nature intended. The concept goes further than just good conservation, they also offer local schools, communities and other interested organizations educational programs. To cap everything off…only wooden memorials are permitted, no fake marble headstones here!

Their website reads:

Our promise is to provide service and burial options that surpass all the desires and the expectations of the bereaved. We adopt an enlightened approach to changing attitudes towards conventional practices, while at the same time retaining absolute respect for the culture, traditions and the environment within which we operate.

Woodland Burial Parks

Contributed by Pete Serjeant

The township of Soweto is famous worldwide for its apartheid era images of riots and poverty. Images coming out of the area these days however are often of fashionable young South African’s partying, as numerous brands are using the township as staging post for reaching a rapidly growing black middle class (nicknamed “black diamonds” by marketers for their increasing spending power).

The Soweto Wine Festival expects over 5,000 visitors and is an essential part of the Western Cape based wine industry’s attempt to reach this new market. They describe their audience as:

“black middle class Sowetan residents (commonly referred to as Black Diamonds) and VIP’s plus ex-Sowetan residents who travel from the suburbs to enjoy these evenings with their friends and family, who reside in Soweto. Saying this, we are experiencing more and more black South Africans that reside all over Gauteng, coming into Soweto to enjoy this groundbreaking festival.”

Another increasingly popular event, targeting a slightly younger but similar audience, is the Soweto Beach Festival. Soweto being several hundred kilometres from the sea is held at Power Park Dam, with 400 tons of beach sand imported for the event. The event, sponsored by a host of drink and lifestyle brands, features performances by some of South Africa’s leading musicians.

Other (heavily sponsored events) in Soweto include a beer festival, a spirits festival and the Tour de Soweto (bike race) amongst others.

Gordon Ramsay has told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown that fruit and vegetables should be locally-sourced and only on restaurants menus when in season. The chef has suggested to the UK leader that there should be an outlawing out-of-season produce. The BBC reports:

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay says British restaurants should be fined if they serve fruit and vegetables which are not in season.

The TV chef said it was “fundamentally important” for chefs to provide locally-sourced food.

“Fruit and veg should be seasonal,” he said. “Chefs should be fined if they haven’t got ingredients in season on their menu. I don’t want to see asparagus on in the middle of December. I don’t want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown.”

BBC Article
BBC Video with interview with Gordon Ramsey

Green Marketing Manifesto author John Grant responds to our post about whether organic and vegan food is environmental. He says:

It’s a bit of an odd statement - what is ‘global warming potential’?… That is nothing to do with the central issues of animal welfare, use of antibiotics and feed additives such as arsenic. Carbon here is a side issue. There are 850 million chicken raised in britain a year; an average of about 14 per person per year. So on average the difference is just under 30kg of carbon dioxide vs your 11 tonne annual footprint.

greenormal: There’s more to life than CO2

Related PSFK Articles
Is Organic Environmental?

This window display created by the internal Paris-based Louis Vuitton design team stands out on 5th Avenue on a gloomy rainy day.

OK: We’ve tried to stop talking about the idea that some folks are developing a negative association with brands that are Olympic corporate sponsors, but we keep seeing signs for it. A poster at this pro-Tibet protest in Union Square suggests that brands like McDonalds, VolksWagen, adidas, Samsung and lenovo are sponsors for ‘China torture’.

Beyond the Chinese government, there’s a huge nation of everyday people who are proud and excited about the spotlight on their country, and the continued protests must be confusing and saddening for them. Unfortunately, the anger the Chinese people feel seems to be directed back to the ‘foreigners’ rather than the folks upstairs who are causing the protests.

We spotted this in the Broadway Uniqlo store. A simple crossed finger insignia provides Subtle and fun collaboration between the fashion retailer and the folks who own Keith Haring’s estate. They’ve been out for a while and Harings imagery has appeared on their T Shirts before too - but it reminded us to point out that Haring seems to be getting a bit of a revival at the moment - a mural that used to sit on Houston Street has been repainted in the same spot.

[Photo ref]