The power of film

Film, as some of you know, is a passion for 6heads.  It brings faceless statistics to life and allows us to empathize, to see an issue or an idea through the eyes of another. It has the power to capture hearts and minds – to shock, inspire and challenge, to make us laugh, to start a debate. Film also gives us the ability to change the lens through which sustainability stories have traditionally been told – to move us from “fear” and a “burning platform” message to one of “solutions” and “positive aspiration” for the future. http://6-heads.com/film/

The Gaia Foundation – based on bringing the breakthrough Gaia theory to life, recently launched a very inspiring campaign:  http://www.gaiafoundation.org/wakeupcall/

Get involved?

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Good morning! Based on the fact that this daily blog is designed to bring an early spring, our third day introduces a brilliant range of products designed for spring cleaning – towards 2050…

Our theme for today is Vision. This company makes a sustainable future a fundamental part of its core business and is pioneering new methods to make it happen.

Ecover

Tom Domen their Long Term Innovation Manager, says the company is shifting from selling product to providing a holistic “service for healthy living”. They plan to inspire systemic change through imagining and delivering on “the ultimate natural cleaning system”.

As part of this vision, Ecover is moving towards 100% biobased products and are pioneering use of biological feedstock and local ingredients. They are also running experiments, including one on the island of Mallorca called GLocal.  Here they’re trying to build a business model inspired by organic ecosystems. Their aim is to develop cleaning products that don’t damage the Mallorcin environment, that are derived from Mallorcin waste streams, and that are produced in partnership with Mallorcin people and businesses. Radical. Inspirational.

You can find out more here: http://bit.ly/1djqL9X

And here: http://uk.ecover.com/

If you loved this and want to make sure you don’t miss tomorrows note – you can sign-up here to receive Feb Forecasts directly into your in-box:  http://6-heads.com/

Today’s theme is circular economy.

Who is pioneering new ways of consumption that drives better use of resources?

We think that this is very important as the statistics alarm us – an estimated £140 million worth (around 350,000 tonnes) of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK, alone, each year.

Whilst we could give you some of the well-known examples (we love Interface, M&S and Patagonia) we are going with…

Rework: Cradle to Cradle workwear designed in such a way that all its constituent parts can be reused. Old and worn REWORK workwear can be used to spin new yarn or to make compost.

You can find out more here: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/56ace02d#/56ace02d/

Welcome to day 1 of our February Futures Forecast. For each day of Feb we will be sending out short notes on organisations, products or concepts that chase away the grey tail-end of winter.  These could not only make daffodils bloom, but also provide food for thought as you plan your year and look for new ideas in sustainability and innovation. If this is exciting enough to lure you out from under your duvet, you might want to sign-up here to receive February Futures Forecasts directly into your in-box: http://6-heads.com/

Our theme for today is making sustainability sexy (and lucrative).

A few years ago I was looking at how to encourage consumers to be more energy efficient in their homes. The Head of Ventures for Unilever advised me to “Think like Apple”.  I didn’t crack it – but a few years on – an Apple breakaway team have launched and sold a radical solution to improving energy efficiency in the home.

The Nest team say they make “unloved products beautiful”. Along with other home-based products, they have developed the Nest learning thermostat. In a very sexy, Apple-ish manner this device allows residents to better interact with and control their home heating systems. This device controls 50% of the load and saves up to 20% energy. Not only have Nest made it easy and desirable for people to use less energy at home, but they have also built an aspirational device that gathers useful personal data from 1000’s of homes – one of the reasons behind their recent sale to Google for $3.2bn.

Andy Baynes from Nest says they follow a few key design principles:

• Meet customers where they are going (not where they are)
• Keep the solution tangible – keep dialoguing with customers about their experience
• Keep design simple and apply design thinking to the whole experience (e.g. include installation, box design, etc.)
• Make it rewarding (e.g. through customer ‘payback’ schemes for load sharing)
• Iterate – keep it fresh

How can we apply these principles (and smart business model) to other ‘boring’ aspects of sustainability?

https://nest.com/