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Another week, another fine array of new business ideas from around the world: vegetarian fast-food from Boulder and Berlin, a brandable cocoon from Canada, sightseeing on the run in Italy, and more. Our next edition is due 12 March 2008. In the meantime, check out our daily postings on www.springwise.com, send us your tips, and please don't forget to tell your friends and colleagues about us. Much appreciated! |
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A few weeks ago, we wrote about Zen Burger, a meatless fast-food chain in New York that serves up vegetarian burgers. One of our Springspotters pointed out Yellow Sunshine, which has been operating in Berlin for a few years. Like Zen Burger, Yellow Sunshine's menu only features vegetarian and vegan food, from vegan muffins to the "Miss Piggy Burger"—faux pork chops on a bun. In Boulder, Colorado, V.G. Burgers has been selling organic fast-food since 2006. V.G. is strictly vegan: no animal-derived products of any kind are used in their burgers, sides or shakes. Their 'green' ethics extend beyond their food offerings, too. The restaurant runs on wind power, and all containers are plant-based and biodegradable: cups, straws and salad containers are made from corn, the cutlery from potato starch, and the soup and burger containers from sugar pulp. As more consumers begin to grasp the environmental impact of eating meat and move towards a (semi) vegetarian diet, opportunities will no doubt expand for entrepreneurs who can serve up guilty pleasures that aren't quite as guilty. Website: www.yellow-sunshine.com — www.vgburgers.com Spotted by: Martina Meng and James Clark
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Of course, BookRenter must compete with established campus retailers, as well as new ventures that are offering free textbooks sponsored by advertisers (see trendwatching.com’s free love briefing for more on that). Even so, BookRenter appeals to consumers who are happy to rent instead of own, choosing flexibility and savings over ownership. As the company grows, it could also easily add downloadable or online texts to its offerings, and could incorporate web 2.0 features to keep students engaged throughout the academic year. Students might be encouraged to upload their notes about particular titles, for instance, and include comments about their classes. We’ve featured new-style rental services for everything from baby clothes to sports cars. Opportunity? Spot the industry or product that other entrepreneurs have overlooked! Website: www.bookrenter.com Spotted by: Francine Kizner
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Numbering more than 82 million in the United States alone, there's no denying that mothers are a significant force to be reckoned with, both economically and otherwise. The EcoMom Alliance aims to tap the power of that demographic for no lesser a goal than to help fight global warming. Launched online a few weeks ago, the California-based EcoMom Alliance hopes to inspire mothers around the globe to make lifestyle changes that will reduce their carbon footprints. Through the EcoMom Challenge, it asks mothers to take its "10 First Steps for a Sustainable Future," including swapping traditional light bulbs for energy-efficient compact fluorescent ones, driving less, and buying local, fair trade and organic products. Picking up on the Australian Conservation Foundation's "Cool the Globe" initiative, the group's One Night Off campaign encourages mothers to choose one night a week to turn off all lights, TVs, washers, dryers and other appliances. Also part of the group's agenda are EcoMom Parties—a post-Inconvenient Truth version of the old Tupperware Parties through which members can connect, find support and share ideas. Other "edutainment" offerings from the group include blogs, podcasts and "Sustain Yourself" events for maxed-out EcoMoms. The EcoMom Alliance is a nonprofit, 501 (c)(3) organization with about 9,000 members around the globe, including not just the United States but also Australia, Hungary, England, France and Brazil. It is reportedly in the process of training women to lead EcoMom events worldwide, as well as readying an official EcoMom seal of approval for commercial products. US mothers alone control 85 percent of household spending, according to the Marketing to Moms Coalition, amounting to about USD 2.1 trillion annually. It’s hard to imagine a much better place to start enabling real change. (Related: Web community for greener living.) Website: www.ecomomalliance.org Spotted by: Flemming Birch
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The world of independent music is a crowded and competitive one, with millions of bands languishing in obscurity both online and off. indieSolo is a site that hopes to help the cream rise to the top, so to speak, by giving one independent band centre stage each day. Launched at the end of 2006, Canadian indieSolo gives unsigned independent musicians the opportunity to showcase their music and talent for an entire day in the hopes of getting discovered. Bands are chosen by audition, and those selected get 24 hours to promote their music, show off their unique personalities, build their fan base and make money through the sale of CDs, ringtones, merchandise and donations. indieSolo offers free hosting of up to three MP3s for each band, and a rating system measures their popularity and buzz. Fans, meanwhile, gain an easier way to discover new music. They can interact with bands they like, give feedback, and download free MP3s and ringtones. The site keeps a list of the top MP3 downloads, while forums and blogs foster community interaction. Participation on ad-supported indieSolo is free for both artists and fans. indieSolo was created by Johnny i, founder of EyeShout Media. He explains: "I see indieSolo empowering the indie artist like MySpace empowered the entire indie music industry." As traditional music distribution models give way to web-enabled ones, sites like indieSolo offer a win-win by bringing new freedom and exposure to musicians and helping fans discover new music. The concept cries out for genre-specific versions—focusing on the blues, say—as well as application to other art forms, such as a site showcasing the authors of books. The main challenge will obviously be to attract enough traffic to these sites, but it will be interesting to see what this model can do! (Related: A luxury deal a day.) Website: www.indiesolo.com Spotted by: Lori Reiser
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When it comes right down to it, most office spaces and meeting rooms feel pretty much the same: sterile walls in drab colours, harsh fluorescent lighting, ubiquitous white boards and a general background din. It's not exactly the stuff to inspire greatness, but a new alternative from Toronto-based Eventscape just might be. Eventscape's Kapsel is a multisensory functional space that can be set up anywhere in a busy office or elsewhere to create an oasis of relaxation and calm. Based on a lightweight tubular frame, the space can be skinned in any material, with no restrictions on size or form. Full-colour graphics, light, sound and even scent can also be included, creating a completely immersive space that can recharge and refocus employees during brainstorming sessions, for example. The whole design can later be knocked down and reskinned, reused and recycled to create a whole new environment. Custom solutions are also available for medical, retail and hospitality applications. The Kapsel design won a gold medal in the booth category at IIDEX/NeoCon Canada 2007, a major design exposition that took place last September in Toronto. As we've discussed before, there are opportunities galore for pop-up spaces like these, going far beyond corporate brainstorming into the realm of being spaces, brand scapes, tryvertising booths and beyond. For more on the opportunities, see our sister-site's briefing on being spaces & brand spaces. Then let your imagination go wild! Website: www.kapsel.ca Spotted by: Flemming Birch
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We've already covered several examples of intention-based real estate sites in the Netherlands, Finland and elsewhere. For those not yet convinced, another shining example just surfaced in Australia—this time with the addition of social networking features. Love That Place, which just launched earlier this month, is a social network designed to let users search, discuss, rate and register interest in property, whether it's for sale or not. Property owners begin by creating a page and uploading photos of their place—simply to gather feedback and advice, or to test the market and see what other people think. Members of the site can leave comments or send private messages (forums are coming soon), and admirers of a particular property can even send a virtual "door-knock" to see if the owner would consider selling. If the owner is interested, the two parties can negotiate privately or through a facilitated process with an agent. Both casual users and serious investors and developers can use Love That Place, with services tailored accordingly. Membership options range from a free, standard option that covers listing up to 3 properties, all the way up to a "property guru" level that's AUD 249 per year for up to 300 properties. Love That Place is definitely more of a social network than the other real estate 3.0 sites we've covered, with its features for conversation and networking. But the basic premise is the same: Even property owners who aren't actively trying to sell their homes can often be convinced to sell when the offer is right. It's a matter of facilitating intentions, and it's a new approach to selling property around the globe. Those in real estate: Don't delay too long! Website: www.lovethatplace.com.au Spotted by: David Steel
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Last summer we wrote about City Running Tours, which offers guided running tours for sightseers in New York, Chicago and now several other US cities too. Turns out there's also a similar venture in Rome that provides running tours in multiple languages. Sight Jogging offers visitors to Rome a selection of 14 different routes to choose from, led by experienced trainers who hail from a variety of countries and speak many different languages. One popular route is a 6.2-mile tour culminating at St. Peter's Basilica, for example; another is 5.2-mile jaunt to the Villa Borghese. All routes are rated for duration, difficulty level and types of attractions covered ("artistic and historical," for example), and guides can tailor the route and pace to the runners' ages and fitness level. Sight Jogging lends heart-rate monitors to all runners at no extra charge, and baby strollers and bikes are also available for those who'd rather not run. Prices range from EUR 70 for one person up to EUR 140 for four. In this era of health-consciousness and multitasking, it's no surprise that running tours are catching on. One to bring to a tourist destination near you! Website: www.sightjogging.it Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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For architects and industrial designers, finding sustainable materials to use in building projects has long been a challenge, with providers and information scattered all across the web. Ecolect, which just launched last fall, aims to provide a single, central library of sustainable materials that makes it easier for designers to be "green." Rhode Island-based Ecolect, which was founded by two Rhode Island School of Design graduates, hopes to save designers time and money by answering three important questions: where to find sustainable materials, what makes them sustainable, and who else is using them and how. Toward that end, the site features materials with sustainable attributes—eco paints and bamboo flooring, for example—complemented by content that stimulates discussion about sustainability. Case studies illustrate the successful use of sustainable design, and users can contribute reviews and images of materials in use. The site's blog, meanwhile, discusses how ecology affects the world. Ad-supported Ecolect is free for users. “We saw a unique and unmet need in the marketplace,” explains Matt Grigsby, one of the site's cofounders. “From there, we set out to not only create the world’s first free and accessible sustainable materials library, but also build a tight-knit global community, where individuals from around the world can go to learn and connect around the issue of sustainable design.” Grigsby won last year’s Rhode Island Innovation Awards Rising Star Innovator title for his role in developing Ecolect, and the company itself has been named a finalist in the 2008 SXSW Web Awards, the winner of which will be named next month. The trend toward sustainability isn't going away anytime soon, so the opportunities are many in supporting and informing those who make it happen. Since the distribution of building materials varies widely by country/region, this is definitely one to set up in your own neck of the woods. Or how about applying the concept to other industries? Website: www.ecolect.net Spotted by: Mark M.
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Given the lifestyle changes wrought by electronic media, it's no surprise that book publishers have begun experimenting with new ways to publish their works. We've recently looked at efforts to sell books in bite-size chunks as downloads or via e-mail and RSS, but many have also become available as free podcasts via Podiobooks.com. Arizona-based Podiobooks.com has actually been around for a few years already, having launched in 2005, and it now lays claim to more than 41,000 members. Users of the site receive episodes or chapters of any book on a schedule of their choosing, and can then listen to them on their computer, transfer the DRM-free audio files to their MP3 player or burn them to CD or other media—all free of charge. A combination of advertising and listener donations supports the service, which passes on 75 percent of all donated funds to authors. Since the 2005 publication of Scott Sigler’s "EarthCore," which the company says was the world’s first podcast-only novel, Podiobooks.com has grown to include 3,913 episodes of 184 titles available for download. All books are distributed with the express permission of the authors, many of whom participate in the interests of marketing and exposure. Early reports of the book's demise were greatly exaggerated, as has been amply proven by the success of the Harry Potter series, among others. But with new media and devices like Amazon's Kindle, the question now is what other forms it might assume. Music has already become available in a variety of formats; now it's books' turn. There's no arguing with choice! Or with free. Much more on the rise of no-price in our sister-site’s current briefing: FREE LOVE. Website: www.podiobooks.com Spotted by: Murtaza Ali Patel
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Back in 2006, Nike generated copious amounts of street cred with techies when it partnered with Apple and released its Nike + iPod Sport Kit, which allowS gadget-loving runners to synch their iPods via a special sensor placed inside their Nike shoes. Now, the US athletic shoe manufacturer seems determined to win over green-minded customers, too. In January, Nike introduced the Air Jordan XX3, which uses eco-friendly materials. Then in February Nike went a step further with Trash Talk. From the sole to the shoelaces, this shoe is produced not only from ‘environmentally preferred’ materials but also recycled waste, with much of the latter coming from Nike’s own production facilities—scraps that would otherwise have been discarded. Trash Talk is the brainchild of Nike celebrity endorser Steve Nash.The All-Star guard for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns is a committed green-living advocate. And a retail price of USD 100 aptly illustrates how a company can turn garbage to gold. That’s a lesson which should be well taken by beleaguered manufacturers in the US and other developed nations. As these manufacturers look for ways to compete with lower-cost producers in Asia, they might find the secret to reinventing themselves is stacked up in the trash bins of their own factories. Yet another way for brands to rack up those greenie points ;-) Website www.nike.com Spotted by: Bjarke Svendsen
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