The Environment
Lots of jargon and difficult theories to understand, but hardest of all is to comprehend the issue on a human scale. In Bristol this week, artist Chris Bodie with his Watermarks Project, shows us where the sea level will be on buildings if various events happen, such as the melting of the Greenland ice cap, shown below.
Thanks to BLDG BLOG
A Trillion
Here CNN tries to explain what a trillion is and ends up looking like a skit from The Daily Show.
Big challenges and issues are hard to communicate, but it appears artists, rather than journalists are the guys who can really do it. They seem to be able to think of ways to put human beings in the picture and give us a sense of scale.
Chris Jordan is an example of an artist who does this really well.
Posted by Ed Cotton
1. Briefly describe your background and what you do now?
I’m a marketing consultant working mostly in the bicycle industry, but I’ve also had some strategy projects for social networking sites. That’s pretty much my whole work history; I started doing PR gigs at a few bike races in 2003 while I was still working at a bike shop just after college and things progressed from there.
Some stuff I’ve worked on… I was the marketing manager for the Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada professional team in 2005 and 2006. This year I launched a blogging and social media campaign for SRAM Corporation around their sponsored teams and athletes. I also help with the business and sponsorship side of MASH, which is basically the first action sports-style urban cycling film.
2. What’s the story behind the current urban biking movement and what forms is it taking?
Utilitarian urban bicycling - as opposed to the recreational bicycling that most people in the US are used to - has always been a part of life in lots of places around the world, from China to Holland. In this country, the two most visible stories in urban bicycling right now are bike commuting and fixed-gear/track bike culture.
The use of bicycles for commuting and alternative transportation is benefiting from some extremely powerful societal and cultural trends. Environmental values have become mainstream. People are concerned about health and fitness. When gas prices were high and now that the economy is bad, the fact the bikes are an inexpensive form of transportation has become more relevant. Finally, urban living with a European sensibility is very much in style.
On the other hand, the fixed-gear culture started with bike messengers but it has inspired a much larger trend of people riding any sleek, fast, skinny-tire bike in the city. Not many are riding true track bikes without brakes, but lots of people ride a fixed-gear bike with brakes, a single-speed, or just a road bike. This culture combines the benefits of alternative transportation with action sports, style, and youth culture. When MASH came out, they had premiers all over the world, were featured in all these fashion magazines, and blew up in Japan. Nothing like that had ever happened with bicycles before.
(definitions of fixed-gear and track bikes at http://sheldonbrown.com/fixed.html)
3. How do you see this evolving in 2009?
No matter what happens with the economy, more people will have more reasons to ride their bikes to work and around town in 2009 than they did in 2008. But that doesn’t mean that the bike industry is recession-proof since most bicycling is still about recreation. Still, strong bike shops are doing better than most retailers right now.
One evolution that you’ll see in 2009 is bike-sharing programs rolled out in more major cities. They’re like Zipcar for bikes, except that some of them let you have a certain amount of time for free before they charge you. Paris’ “Velib” program is the gold standard, and DC started the first for a major US city this year. Honolulu, Minneapolis, and a few others are on tap for next year.
You’ll also see more celebrities on bikes and the general “fashionization” of bicycles. I recently interviewed the CMO of Puma for my blog about how they’ve made bikes a part of their strategy, and you’ll see more non-bicycle brands doing the same thing in 2009.
4. Who are the companies and organizations that are supporting this movement, it seems to have its own ecosystem?
For something so big, there’s very little hierarchy. It’s really just a chain of communities sharing ideas and learning best practices from each other. Cicolvia program for car-free days in city centers, started in Bogota and spread to other cities in Colombia, then around the world.
Generally, you see the most progress in terms of bike lanes, bike racks on transit vehicles, car-free days, and generally safer streets for bicyclists in cities with strong bicycle advocacy organizations and pro-bike mayors. London’s Ken Livingstone is a great example. In San Francisco, the SF Bicycle Coalition just passed 10,000 members and they’re a significant political force in the city.
The bike industry itself was fairly slow to react to the growth of urban cycling. Until two or three years ago, there were road bikes, mountain bikes, and lounge chairs on wheels. Now there’s an “urban” category of bikes that are designed for fast, efficient city riding. Bike companies are giving more money to advocacy organizations, although it’s likely that the industry as a whole still spends more on sponsoring professional racing than on promoting urban bicycling.
5.Is it possible with a renewed focus on alternative forms of transportation that biking will see a resurgence, if not, what is required to make this happen?
This is already happening, but mostly in denser cities and metro areas with political climates that are more progressive on environmental issues. In many places, the bicycle is not the most practical means of transportation, but we can’t just tear up the sprawl and start over. That’s why people in the bicycle advocacy community are starting to talk about bicycling not just on its own, but also as part of a system of alternative transportation. Instead of “ride your bike to work”, the messaging is expanding to include “ride your bike to transit” and “ride your bike to carpool”. Bicycling and other forms of group transportation go hand in hand.
Practicality is only part of the story; fixed-gear culture will play a role by changing the image of the urban bicyclist. It used to be that dorky guy in your office building who’d get on the elevator still wearing his helmet and reflective strap on his pants. Now it’s actually cool to be a bicyclist, which is an amazing thing.
As a final note… thanks to all the little line items that were included to pass the second version of the Bailout, you’ll be eligible in 2009 for up to $20/month of tax-free reimbursement of bike commuting expenses. Subtract $240 per year, and riding to work is almost free!
(1) Dawn brought to life some of the challenges of pushing sustainability in a world that doesn't quite yet understand what it is or means.
She also shared with us a fascinating project she worked on years ago in Windsor, Ontario (the gateway town to Detroit) where she empowered citizens to think about sustainable city architecture and space.
Her presentation also explored some of the perils of so called "Green Design" where designers often end up creating more clutter, rather than identifying real solutions.
She suggested designers get to know where the impacts are located and find a way to hack them. As an example- she highlighted work done by designers to help reduce the pollution from motorcycle rickshaws in urban centers in the developing world.
Thankfully, the "crowd" engaged in some interesting discussion about consumer cynicism, corporate honesty, "Greenwashing", the real need for standards and consumer incentives.
Posted by Ed Cotton
However, that's not the case with Patagonia, who despite building a brand that's focused on supporting the environment, it's recently turned its attention to the eco-footprints of its products.
There's a dedicated space on its website that examines the footprints of four of its products.
While this is a very limited selection of its total SKUs, the manner and honesty in which the information is presented is refreshing for the following reasons.
1. It explores the breadth of the issue from materials to transportation
2. They acknowledge that things aren't perfect
3. They highlight the fact they want to improve
4. They encourage others to comment
5. The translate the impact into language we can all understand- the energy to produce a rain jacket is the same as leaving a regular lightbulb on constantly for 42 days!!
It would be good to see other brands follow Patagonia's lead.
Posted by Ed Cotton
There's a growing feeling that there need to be objective measures to help people understand what's a good thing and a right thing.
In the last few years, the LEED rating for buildings was often highlighted as a great example.
However, recently the tide has turned against LEED, witness this amazing example relating to San Francisco's new Federal Building.
"Too damn ahead of its time, the systems used for environmental control in the Fed Building are so innovative that they have yet to be considered so by the overly-prescriptive commandments of Green. The Green Buildings Council, however, claim that LEED is a work-in-progress, and have consented to take the next few months to reevaluate the Federal Building. Hopefully they'll continue to update their requirements so that LEED becomes less of an pocket industry encouraging architects to "tack on" expensive third-party features and more of an impetus for carefully conceived, environmentally-integrated designs."
SF Curbed
The whole area of standards is something that needs serious thought and investment.
Is government going to lead this?
Industry associations?
It's really unclear who is going to take responsibility and the longer the wait, the more confusion and the more cynicism.
Everyone agrees that environment is the critical issue, but we need more effort to measure.
Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) With the environment becoming such a big issue, the area of corporate responsibility is going to be under the microscope even more than in the past.
The problem is that there's very little performance measurement and comparative auditing between companies.
There are surveys and polls, but it's hard to find anything else that challenges and compares company standards.
It was therefore interesting to be send a press release from Covalence in Switzerland, who have been measuring and ranking companies on the their ethical performance for the past 3 years.
The company tracks performance by examining a variety of sources including the companies themselves, news media and non-profit organizations.
Covalence has just released its performance data for 2007 and there are some interesting findings.
The company provides three rankings.
1. Best Ethical Quote Score (positive minus negative news)
2. Best Ethical Progress
3. Best Reported Performance (How the company presents itself)
It's interesting and something of a challenge for US companies to see the foreigners, Unilever, Toyota and HSBC leading the way, with HP, Alcoa and Starbucks trailing in their wake.
On a cynical note, the US companies do a rather good job at talking up their own performance with Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola emerging as the leaders in that category.
Covalence also found that in 07, the environmental impact of production, eco product innovation and anti-corruption policy were the leading areas of ethical responsibility.
In addition to the annual report, Covalence provides real-time tracking of ethical peformance.
Useful if you manage an ethical funds or work in the CSR or PR department.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, audits and quality standards are going to emerge as an important issue for the environment and corporate ethics this and its good to see someone attempting to provide some comparative data.
Posted by Ed Cotton