DMB and Brita

While the overall economic climate certainly slowed down the mainstream green movement, the crisis in the Gulf has brought it back to the forefront.

One of my passions is music and it’s great to see artists pitching in to raise awareness and engage others.

I recently wrote about one of my first real concert experiences – Dave Matthews Band in 1996. Dave is the most successful touring artist of the past decade and this year he made a new commitment to reduce the impact his shows have on the environment through a partnership with Brita.



Do you know of other examples where musicians are creating unique programs around the environment?

Green Game Changers

Ever since the economy went off the deep end, the mainstream media has been spending much less time covering the climate change discussion. Now there are certainly a number of other important issues that deserve the attention, but it's amazing to me how much this topic has faded.

When it comes to marketing, I see a similar trend. Less than two years ago everyone was trying to figure out how they could be 'green' and now the pervasive question is what to do with social media. Companies will soon realize, if they haven't already, that social media will place even more attention on their corporate social responsibility.

HuffPost recently published a diverse list of Green Game Changers including local businessman Gary Hirshberg. Interestingly this piece is also an example of another growing trend in the online world - branded content. The feature is presented by Toyota.

Hybrid Placements

I’m fascinated by the product placement and branded entertainment industry. I remember the first time I recognized an overt example of paid product placement in the second Austin Powers movie. They were almost spoofing the concept, while at the same time pulling in serious dollars from Heineken and others.

DVR technology has also become more popular, forcing advertisers to look beyond the traditional TV spot. This has increased the number of product placements and spawned an entire industry bringing brands and entertainment content developers together.

I recently came across this video highlighting all of the product placements that Brand Arc, a dedicated branded entertainment agency, secured or created for Toyota. How much would you pay to have Ellen cuddling up with your product?

Culture Club

Climate Culture has built a virtual community that combines gaming with environmental education and real world implications. When a player signs up they are asked a number of questions so their virtual world reflects their personal environmental impact. Through a series of actions a player can reduce their carbon footprint, help friends do the same and improve their status in the community.

The company is exploring partnerships with many different organizations and may even develop a program where state governments certify these energy savings and sell the offsets to energy suppliers.

From a marketing standpoint, the site is extremely slick and the intro video makes it easy to grasp the concept. With that said, consumers may be looking for more tangible benefits so they may want to link positive activity with discounts on real world green products.

Enviro Entrepreneurship

Some companies are making strides to go green while others are completely built around the concept. Terracycle takes the idea of going from garbage to gold to a whole new level.

Keep It Current

Al Gore's user generated TV channel, Current, has experienced steady growth over the last few years. In addition to viewing this through your cable provider, the Current Web site is a popular online destination. Current was extremely active during the election and even constructed a pop up retail store here in Manchester. They also threw a party the night before the NH primary that remains one of the best bar events I've attended here in town.
Tonight at 10pm on Current TV (and Current.com) Kevin Rose, the founder of Digg, will interview Al Gore. All of the questions were submitted through the Web by everyday folks like Joe the Blogger. I'm sure we can expect a number of questions related to how the new administration will prioritize the environment.
Kevin also happens to be the poster child for Web 2.0 which should make for an interesting dialogue. I noticed today that Al joined the popular micro blogging site Twitter so hopefully we'll learn more about what prompted him to make that move. It's only a matter of time before more public figures and celebrities begin to use the service, but I think it's safe to say he's still an early adopter.

Almost Famous

It’s amazing to think we will be naming our next president in less than two days. The process has been extremely long and a number of different issues have taken center stage over the last 20 months. Before the recent collapse of the economy, the price of gas was the hot topic for the candidates to discuss. We were all feeling the pain at the pump and it seemed like our collective conscience was focused on how the next president would deal with this issue. Although the environment and energy independence are still mentioned on the stump, they have clearly taken a back seat. I’ve heard the candidates explain how the two issues are linked, but for some reason these sound bites rarely make the evening news. While many experts believe this could be the key to an economic recovery, it will be interesting to see how energy independence is addressed by the new president.