Fast Company recently provided a sneak peek at 10 sustainable products created as part of The Nature Conservancy’s “Design for a Living World,” an exhibition on display at the Cooper-Hewitt now through January 2010. The show features work from top designers from the worlds of fashion, textiles, furniture and packaging in order to highlight that good design and sustainability are no longer mutually exclusive practices. In an effort to get consumers to rethink the ways their buying decisions impact the world, the project sets out to tell the stories behind these products, giving viewers a glimpse into the entire life-cycle.
On [...]

Salon recently spent a day with authors Anneli Lawson and Kristan Rufus who have taken the spirit of DIY culture and combined it with their unique perspective on consumerism in their book The Scavengers’ Manifesto, a guide for all those intrigued by notions of reduce, reuse and recycle, but don’t necessarily want to lose out on the best that life has to offer. For the two authors, this book represents a way of life and an opportunity to take their point of view into the mainstream. This guide isn’t just about extreme activities like dumpster diving either, instead it presents a [...]

In these lean times, eBay is hoping to persuade you to spend some of your hard earned dollars with them by pushing a more sustainable model of shopping they’re marketing as part of their project Green Team, though you might not initially realize it upon visiting their website. Despite the 1,000 plus employees that are helping to make this eco-initiative possible, the invitation to visit the Green Team site is only given a small tab on the upper right hand corner of the eBay home page – hardly a stunning endorsement on the part of the management. Still, once you manage [...]

The one-for-one model isn’t working so well for OLPC, but it’s doing wonders for a small company called TOMS Shoes, which donates one pair of shoes for every pair sold. The shoes have a distinctly traditional look to them (they’re modeled after the traditional Argentinian alpargata, a simple slip-on canvas shoe), but they’ve certainly crossed over into the mainstream. As TOMS preps to launch its most recent design collaboration with Element Skateboards, PSFK talks to founder Blake Mycoskie about where the company came from, and where it’s going.
What was your original inspiration for TOMS and how did you turn it [...]

We spotted this American Apparel ad on the back of a local NYC publication. We suspect it has less to do with a reversal of the company’s provocative campaigns of the past and more to do with the current economic conditions. Foregoing the depiction of a scantily clad model for once, American Apparel instead introduces us to the wholesome image of Willie, “A valued member of our Fabric Control Team.”

With a total of 21 stores in Manhattan and Brooklyn – one location (pictured at right) recently opening up down the street from the PSFK offices – American Apparel could stand [...]

The Guardian recently sat down with Rob Bondurant VP of Marketing at Patagonia and asked him to discuss their sustainable model and how they will continue to innovate for the future. Beyond simply furthering the reach of their own brand, we found Patagonia’s desire to provide leadership in the areas of ethical business practices to be particularly noteworthy.
During 2008, the company started the Organic Exchange with the sole purpose of training other companies to source and manufacture organic goods. In an effort to provide their customers with greater access to information and promote transparency, they created the Footprint Chronicles, a study [...]

We’ve been thinking about ways handsets could be more sustainable, and it turns out that Nokia has too. Their latest idea: Make less stuff.
As part of its new “we:” strategy to save energy and reduce waste, Nokia’s N79 Eco will ship sans charger (the idea is to use your old one) and come in a smaller box. According to AllAboutSymbian:
The smaller box may not sound terribly significant, but when you operate on the scale of Nokia the little things really do add up. For example between February 2006 and the end of 2007, Nokia shipped 250 million phones in smaller [...]

We noticed this eco-conscious sign in an antique warehouse in Norwalk, Conneticut. The sign says
Please help us: Recycle, Reuse, Restore

Hand-Me-Down is a new line of clothes from Howie guaranteed to last for 10 years and maybe longer.
While it tackles sustainability issues from a manufacturer’s point of view (creating a better product so people consume less), it raises questions about consumer habits.
Would people be willing to wear the same coat for 10 years? And what are the implications for fashion fads?
Or does this just mean that the coat will be left gathering dust at a second hand store for the next 9.5 years?
[via Josh Spear]

Umair Haque, the director of the Havas Media Lab shares five questions (and possible answers) he believes can generate valuable insights on how to thrive as a business in the sometimes dizzying world of the 21st century. Haque says that to mitigate the effects of the gloomy economic future, people need to radically change assumed operating procedures and re-wire the fundamental ways they do business. He discusses how to manage a world based on decreasing consumption and how to build on two-way value chains such as the member submitted culture of Threadless.
He explains:
Tomorrow will not be like yesterday. This is [...]

As tutoring center 826 Valencia prepared to open its doors in 2002, the founders – including author and McSweeney’s editor Dave Eggers – discovered that the space was zoned for commercial use.  In order to comply with San Francisco city regulations, the creative team decided to open a Pirate Supply store in the front of the building, an idea that became so successful that as the group opened new centers in other major cities – a Superhero Supply Co. in Brooklyn and a Time Travel mart in LA, among others – they’ve adopted similar themes with all proceeds supporting the [...]

Everybody loves getting their monthly mail delivery of movies and magazines, so why not clothing? Swedish clothing designer Karolina Svensson at Orkan Lia is offering a subscription-based service that delivers custom tailored outfits for each subscriber. Svensson’s designs are inspired by 1950s and 1960s prints & textiles with a contemporary flair in cut and color. While certain sizes may not be available, the service extends to men as well as children.
Pricing is reasonable considering each piece is custom-fitted, with subscribers getting around a 20% discount from her retail pay-as-you-go clothing. Dresses range from $85-$125, skirts at $70-$85 and tops between [...]

Jake Kloberdanz, CEO of Hope Wine, has taken the idea of “cause branding” where for-profit corporations partner with non-profit organizations to release limited edition products and services to raise money for charities and created a company around it. Realizing that these short term relationships were beneficial for everyone involved – corporations could promote themselves as socially conscious while simultaneously bolstering sales, non-profits received much needed funding and customers could make purchases they felt good about – Kloberdanz didn’t see any reason these same ideals couldn’t function as a sustainable business model year round. Launched in early 2007, the Southern California based company currently [...]

We’re inspired by PSFK friend Courtney Sexton’s repurposing of some old PSFK collateral, transforming a large foamcore sign we used for PSFK Conference San Francisco into a perfectly fitting instrument case. Courtney, aka Flickr user evilsigntist, explains:
Problem: I was planning on traveling to France with my band for NYE, but I didn’t have a travel-worthy case for my horn. I couldn’t find one I liked for a price I could afford.
Solution: I made my own case for under $50.
The body of the case is made from donated reused signs left over from a PSFK conference that the company I [...]

At the PSFK Conference Asia 2008, Charles Ogilvie (Panasonic), Creative Designer and Inventor of RED, the award winning in-flight entertainment system for Virgin America, speaks about service innovation, new revenue models, and the use of airborne technology throughout Asia and the world at large.
From the drab grey seats and drop down projectors of just ten years ago, Charles describes the process he and his team went through when challenged by Richard Branson to figure out “What’s next in aviation?”
Interestingly, Charles explains that in addition to personal entertainment systems, mood lighting, and all the wizzy-wig technological concepts being tossed around, Asian [...]