Latest in Eco-Chic

We love to see small business embrace sustainability. Because as much impact as the Fortune 500's have, small businesses— from tech start ups to the dry cleaner around the corner— is where change happens fastest.

So while on vacation on Nantucket, I was excited to watch an eco-business taking off. It's one-part vacation activity, one-part sustainable product line and one-part eco-branding. Confused?

Meet Cheryl Fudge. Cheryl's background is in fashion design. After leaving Manhattan's runways for ACK (Nantucket's airport code), she started a company that salvages unique vintage clothing, patches, upholstery material and hip T-shirts, all with a local Nantucket connection (think whale prints and "Nantucket Reds"). She then turns them into fashionable, one-of-a-kind clothes. Everything from jeans to a formal gown made from drapes found in one of Nantucket's oldest Captain's Houses. No new materials, no waste. The poster-child for reuse, recycle. She also has a "Fashion Camp" where island visitors design their own wearable art, which Cheryl's staff then sews overnight. She's booked solid during the "high season."

But it doesn't stop there. Cheryl and partner Hays Westbrook, have trademarked the term "ACK Green" (I wasn't just sharing the airport code to be clever) and created a robust line of products under the brand. Water bottles, T-shirts, stickers, patches, etc. Everything is produced with sustainability in mind, and the brand has become an instant hit with islanders and tourists alike.

It goes to show that movements can be branded. And they can start small and local. After all, (Red) had mixed results, but ACK Green has something (Red) didn't— the big dreams of a small business entrepreneur.

CherylFudge.com

The Greening of Higher Education

With fall semester getting underway, we can’t help but notice that many universities are jumping onto the Green bandwagon.

Today, when high school seniors tour college campuses, they no longer only care about the cafeteria menus; dorm rooms, the party scene and the guy to girl ratio (though we are sure these continue to rank quite high on the priority list of 17 and 18 year olds). Increasingly, these soon to be collegians want to know how much of the school’s energy is green, what happens to the waste that is generated and whether the cafeteria offers reusable silverware and dishes and of course is there a recycling program for the beer bottles and cans.

A recent Princeton Review survey showed that the environmental commitment of schools influences the choice of college for a stunning 63% of applicants! To address this rising demand, The Princeton Review has partnered with EcoAmerica to add a “green rating” to their college rankings.

http://princetonreview.com/green.aspx?uidbadge=%07

Investing in sustainability initiatives is an added incentive to market to potential students and it also helps attract leading faculty as well as funding and donations. And positive marketing and word-of-mouth just happen to be two other convenient byproducts…

The numbers show that schools all over the country are increasingly doing more than just the average recycling program. When we, The Greenery, went to college green was a term reserved for the Birkenstock wearing, tree loving crowd. Today, Generation Z has fully embraced this movement and we believe, will be the generation to make a difference.

The Sport of Sustainability

Few things in life bring people together like sporting events. And recently, sustainability has been getting into the game. The Olympics, U.S. Open Tennis. Even the sport of politics, with the Democratic Convention. Sports teams and events are getting greener.

One of the first—and best known—is the Philadelphia Eagles. Its stadium is the benchmark for green arenas, with sophisticated energy and waste reduction systems. The NFL team has also made it their mission, adopting a forest to off-set the inevitable carbon emitted by flying around big guys on big planes for every Sunday.

Of course, even the Eagles can get, um, a bit carried away....

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paige-donner/greening-hollywood-nfl-ea_b_115138.html

Here's what a few others are doing:

Major League Baseball. MLB partnered with the NRDC to launch the "Team Greening Program" which promote sustainability across all of the teams. This season, you can expect to see robust recycling programs at the stadiums, solar-powered scoreboards, as well as material and information in the stadiums to encourage fans to go green.

http://www.nrdc.org/media/2008/080317.asp

Motorsport Racing. Even the worst of the gas-guzzlers have caught on to the green movement, as race cars like the Corvette Z06 E85 (as in Ethanol E85). In the 2009 Dakar Rally, keep a look out for the Kenya Kwanza team of Glen Edmunds, who will be running a sustainable bio-diesel to raise awareness of climate change.

http://www.ewire.com/display.cfm/Wire_ID/4965

New Jersey Nets. A slam dunk-- the Nets are way ahead in the green game. They are the first carbon-neutral team in the NBA. Our favorite part of the site, check out the video on the right hand side. It features one of the official team dancers shares the Nets visions with fans.

http://netsgogreen.com/

Shea Stadium. And in our hometown, New York's new stadium is going green.

http://www.observer.com/2008/new-shea-stadium-goes-green-what-does-it-mean

With tens of thousands of people attending these events every day, the impact is substantial. Of course, getting to the new "green stadiums" is usually the least sustainable part of the event.

The Dem's Convention and Beer

You may have heard that the DNC offset the carbon footprint of its jet-setting delegates. But exactly how?

They composted the food waste from all 8,000+ meals. Used biodegradable trash bags for the garbage hauled to landfills. Powered both the Pepsi Center and Hyatt (the DNC HQ) by 100% wind energy.

And our favorite: used only hybrid or "alternative fuel" cars and trucks to transport delegates and the media. Alternative fuel. You must be thinking biodiesel, right?

Not exactly. Beer.

I know what you're thinking now: "Is there nothing beer can't do?" But before you throw a six-pack into the gas tank, the fuel is really ethanol made from waste materials created in the brewing process.

And that waste adds up. Molson Coors (based in Denver) donated enough clean burning ethanol fuel to the DNC for all 400 General Motors flex-fuel vehicles used throughout the convention. Nice PR move. Who can resist the irony? After all, next to nominating an historic candidate, what is the convention besides one big party?

So kick back this election season, crack open a cold one and save the world.

Green Olympic Games

Last week, the 2008 Summer Olympics kicked off with a bang. It's a rare opportunity for people from all walks of life to turn their televisions on and enjoy true world class competition. And some of the largest global corporations have spent over a billion dollars to grab the attention of these 30 million prime time viewers each night.

The focus of their ads? Sustainability. Needless to say, we're happy to see this.

Over the next thirteen days, we will be posting some of these ads, sharing our thoughts and hoping you will share yours.

First up, The Alliance for Climate Protection's WE campaign. Their latest ad encourages us to move to "clean" electricity. Of course, we applaud all of Gore's efforts in the fight against global warming, but wonder if the campaign gives people the chance to take action?

Yes, the ad sends the viewers to wecansolveit.org, where individuals are encouraged to write their local and state politicians and ask for change. But we wonder...

Did it miss an opportunity to inspire individuals to make changes to their daily lives?

What do you think? Chime in.

Thoughtful Committed Citizens

Welcome to The Greenery-- global advertising agency Ogilvy's sustainability practice area.

The Greenery is a group of like-minded Ogilvy New York employees who found each other in early 2007. Uneasy with the state of the environment, keen to make a change, and sensing an opportunity, we banded together to do two things: Change Ogilvy, and help our clients change the world.

On the Ogilvy front, The Greenery has begun resizing our own carbon footprint and making Ogilvy a healthier and more eco-friendly place to work. (Rule #1 of green marketing is to get your own house in order.) We're excited to have all our employees join us in our ongoing bid to make Ogilvy the most sustainable company we can be.

But our ambitions go beyond our own front door. We believe sustainability is the business opportunity of the 21st century, and we sensed a huge appetite to address it from our clients. Thanks to our work with visionary clients like BP, DuPont, Unilever, Kraft, IBM, Cisco and The Economist, Ogilvy has been involved with sustainability marketing for close to a decade.

The Greenery set out to consolidate everything we've learned about green marketing and to create a model that will allow us to do some amazing things. We call it The Greenery Lab: a network of the world's leading thinkers on sustainability who we call on to help us incubate revolutionary ideas and develop new answers for clients.

As anthropologist Margaret Meade said, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

To learn more about Ogilvy's The Greenery, keep checking this space or contact us at thegreenery@ogilvy.com