Digital Verdure is about breakthrough startups and marketing ideas that bridge the digital-environmental opportunity gap.
My name is Alex Patriquin and I'll be covering businesses and ideas that shape consumer behavior through digital communications technology for profit and environmental benefit.
In 2009, our country is poised to revitalize its investment in green technology and infrastructure. President Obama's recently passed stimulus package lays the framework for energy and environmental initiatives to grow dramatically over the next few years.
Meanwhile a vocal and growing popular movement in support of sustainable business practices has emerged, amplified and aggregated by advances in digital media, particularly the explosion of social web technology.
At Net Green, we embrace this confluence of factors as an unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs and market innovators to profitably tap the country's collective pro-green momentum by building brand-based, web-connected communities.
Here’s just a couple of innovative green startups and business ideas that exemplify these trends -
ZipCar stands out as an early winner in combining digital technology and a sustainable business mission. The innovative car rental company empowers customers to find available vehicles in their neighborhoods through real time inventory tracking and a squeaky clean Google Maps integration. You can search by available time, location, price or model. When you find a nearby vehicle, you simply wave your RFID "ZipCard" and Viola! You've got wheels.
The reservation system is delivered through a downright fun interface via web or iPhone -- way more pleasant than hacking through a traditional car company's site, only to have to schlep to the agency and fill out more forms in those depressing beige offices.
With an easygoing brand, subscription-based pricing model and online tools to facilitate household sharing and referrals, the company has won a devoted loyal following and growing member base.
As for environmental factors, ZipCar claims that members drive less than owners would, saving 219 gallons of oil per member or 32 million gallons PER YEAR. ZipCar has penetrated only 0.05% of the addressable car sharing market, so the road ahead is just beginning.
RecycleBank is an incentive-based approach to recycling that connects households with the technology to manage their own recycling programs and rewards from well-known marketers for participating.
The company provides households with specially-designed recycle bins that contain an RFID chip. Bins are collected weekly and weighed by collection trucks, with credit attributed to each household via the RFID chip and updated in real time to the web.
From the RecycleBank website, household members can monitor their credits and redeem them for rewards from hundreds of retail stores and manufacturers, such as CVS and Kraft.
It's a fact that most people say they want to recycle, but often behave very differently. RecycleBank encourages households to follow through by providing tangible incentives and making it easy.
You can log in to your account at RecycleBank.com and keep track of how many gallons of oil and hundreds of trees you've saved by recycling. There's even links directly to Overstock.com and other online retailers for when you've saved up enough points to redeem that $20 gift certificate.
RecycleBank works exclusively in communities with single-stream recycling systems, which means you don't need to separate paper, plastic, glass and metal before it goes in their big blue bins -- all that gets sorted out down the line at a recycling facility.
As of today, RecycleBank claims to have recycled the equivalent of 1.3 million trees and 89 million gallons of oil.
RSS Feed