This past spring we wrote about ECHOage, a Canadian venture dedicated to doing away with wasteful kids' birthday parties and focusing them instead on giving one gift and supporting one cause. Now DreamBank—also out of Canada—is bringing a similar concept to the grown-up world.

DreamBank aims to help people 18 and over fund their dreams by posting them online and inviting friends and family to contribute toward their realization. Posting a dream is free, and dreams must simply be valued anywhere between CDN 20 and CDN 20,000—examples currently on the site range from paying off student loans to attending the 2010 Olympics. Donating toward a dream is an eco-friendly alternative to traditional gifts, the site says, noting the many unwanted items that typically get exchanged each year, or are never used. It also helps a charitable cause. When they post a dream, users of the site are asked to choose a charity they'd like to support, with options including CARE, Doctors without Borders, the African Wildlife Foundation and Kiva. DreamBank deducts CDN 2.25 in fees from loved ones' contributions, and until the dream is realized, the rest gets pooled into one big fund, the interest on which is donated to the charity the user selected.

Users of the site can connect and exchange ideas with other "dreamers," and they can also withdraw their donated cash at any time, closing out their dream. DreamBank, meanwhile, deducts 2.5 percent of their total funds when they cash it out. Launched earlier this month, DreamBank already has more than 30 dreams posted on the site. Financial partners working behind the scenes are PayPal and HSBC.

Is this the gift-giving model for a new breed of consumers? With its focus on one big experience over many small possessions (most of the listed dreams are for experiences), DreamBank should definitely strike a chord with transumers.

Website: www.dreambank.org
Contact: feedback@dreambank.org

Spotted by: Lindsay McDonald

Guests at Jumeirah Hotels may be able to pre-order toothpaste or books for delivery before they arrive (see Shop-ahead service for hotel guests), but that won't help solve fashion emergencies that can crop up during a stay. For crises of a more sartorial sort, Net-A-Porter now offers an "emergency wardrobe service" for guests at select Soho House members' clubs/hotels.

Forgotten pair of shoes? Embarrassing stain incurred at dinner? Guests at High Road House London, Babington House Somerset and Soho House New York need fear such adversity no more. Thanks to the brand-new initiative, they can now enjoy same-day delivery of items from Net-A-Porter's exclusive online collection of designer clothes, shoes, handbags and accessories, according to Vogue.com UK. Swing tags in each room promote the service, which reportedly launched last week.

Who says luxury is dead? Through partnerships between like-minded companies like Net-A-Porter and high-end hotels, the premiumization possibilities are endless! Moreover, it's a great example of an online brand branching out into the offline world, getting physically closer to (new) customers without having to invest in expensive retail space.

Website: www.net-a-porter.com — www.sohohouse.com
Contact: customercare.usa@net-a-porter.com

Spotted by: Vogue.com UK via RK

Earlier this year we wrote about Ecolect, an online library of sustainable building materials aimed at making it easier for builders to be green. Along similar lines, one of our spotters recently came across a Colorado-based store that showcases green products for building and the home.

Aiming to provide the highest quality organic and environmentally friendly home products available, Natural Interiors offers a variety of flooring, counter tops, plasters, paints, cabinets and carpeting all based on natural ingredients, as well as a range of bedding, window treatments and mattresses. Cork flooring, for example, is made from sustainable tree bark, while a Natural Interiors counter top is fabricated from recycled bottles. Clay-based paints eliminate the volatile organic compounds found in most traditional paints; carpeting is 100 percent wool and chemical-free. Window coverings are made from rapidly renewable grasses, reeds, bamboo and hemp, and there's even a line of nontoxic deck stains.

Meanwhile, Amsterdam-based Eco-Logisch offers Dutch consumers a similar array of earth-friendlier building materials, selling everything from bamboo flooring to rooftop wind turbines.

While eco-mattresses and bedding appear to be increasingly common, green building and remodeling materials are still hard to find in many parts of the world. By bringing many of them together in one retail setting, ventures like Natural Interiors and Eco-Logish take the category one step closer to the eco-iconic mainstream. Coming soon to an area near you... unless you get there first! ;-)

Website: www.naturalinteriors.us — www.eco-logisch.eu
Contact: info@naturalinteriors.us — info@eco-logisch.eu

Spotted by: Bill McMahon

For senior citizens, finding travel and other insurance can be a challenge, given the upper age limits most providers put on their services. UK-based Intune hopes to end all that with a range of financial services aimed directly at consumers over 60.

Intune was launched last year by Help the Aged, a charity that works on behalf of older people worldwide, and all profits from its work go back to the charity, which has itself been providing financial services for more than 10 years. Age is not an issue in Intune's products, which include travel, motor, home and pet insurance as well as equity release, saver accounts, care fees advice, identity theft protection and funeral plans, among other services. Intune's travel insurance policy, for example, has no upper age limit, and it boasts that its oldest customer is 101 years old this year. The oldest participant in its winter sports coverage plan is 81.

“We have found that older people holiday more widely than younger age groups, and for longer at a time—more than 121,000 trips of 3–6 months have been taken by this age group over the last year," explains Stuart Castledine, Intune's managing director. "The over-80s traveller has particular requirements which need accommodating, but they do not want a system which writes them off at a time when they should be enjoying life to the full.” Intune's main commercial partner for general insurance products is Liverpool Victoria.

We've now covered supermarkets, health stores, driving services, being spaces and financial services aimed directly at senior citizens. Given the size of this mammoth demographic, none of it comes a moment too soon! It's still a wide open playing field for those who cater to seniors in a respectful and value-providing way. Who will bring services like these to booming consumers in the rest of the world...?

Website: www.intunegroup.co.uk
Contact: www.intunegroup.co.uk/companyInformation/ContactUsForm.aspx

Spotted by: Simon Kirby

We've already written about TerraCycle, the company that achieved a spot on the shelves of Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Target with its eco-fertilizer based on organic waste and worm castings. Now TerraCycle has found yet another way to create gold out of garbage by turning discarded wrappers and juice pouches into bags, pencil boxes and other accessories.

As part of its ongoing mission to "eliminate the idea of waste," as its website puts it, TerraCycle has struck deals with large food and beverage manufacturers to collect the wrappers from their products and "upcycle" them into new, unique accessories. Through a partnership with Kraft's Capri Sun and Honest Kids juice makers, for example, TerraCycle collects juice pouches from individuals and organizations that have signed up to participate in its "Drink Pouch Brigade." Each time participants send some pouches in to TerraCycle, Capri Sun and Honest Kids donate USD 0.02 per pouch to the charity of the collector's choice (they pay USD 0.01 each for pouches from other juice brands). Nabisco, similarly, has sponsored TerraCycle's cookie wrapper program, while ClifBar and Kraft's Balance Bar have sponsored initiatives to upcycle energy bar wrappers. There are also programs for corks, yoghurt cups, soda bottles and Bear Naked granola bags.

Once TerraCycle gets the donated packaging, it converts it into bags and other accessories. Displayed on its site, for example, is a USD 9.99 tote bag available at Target.com that's made entirely from Capri Sun juice pouches. Also available are backpacks, pencil cases, homework folders and lunch boxes, all made entirely from TerraCycle's upcycled wrappers.

Juice pouches and wrappers have proven a particularly difficult challenge to break down and recycle, so TerraCycle's innovative, creative and green solution is clearly a compelling one for companies struggling with that problem. For consumers, bags and other goods made from recycled packaging are not just eco-friendly, but they also offer the added benefit of a story behind every product. (Related: Eco-chic entrepreneurs.)

Website: www.terracycle.net
Contact: www.terracycle.net/contact.htm

Spotted by: Flemming Birch