New project: The Carbon Economy

For the second time in recent months XPLANE has partnered with The Economist to create a compelling video on a topic of global importance. After working together on “Did You Know? 4.0”, The Economist enlisted XPLANE’s visual communication expertise to develop “The Carbon Economy” about the growing importance of climate change and green technologies and solutions.

“The Carbon Economy” will be shown at The Economist’s upcoming Carbon Economy Summit on November 17 and 18, 2009 in Washington, D.C. The video is three minutes in length and includes simple visuals and a moving soundtrack to clearly convey the troubled state of global climate change and what steps must be taken to reach a positive outcome. The production was created using Apple’s Keynote software.

For more information on The Carbon Economy Summit, visit http://carboneconomy.economist.com.

Craving a cigarette? How about 4,000 lethal chemicals?

We’ve just finished a new project: Put It Out is an illustrated poster showing in no uncertain terms the lethal chemicals — including arsenic, methane and formaldehyde — ingested from each cigarette and what some of the harsh health facts are surrounding smoking.

Weissman: The 10 Worst Corporations of 2008

“What a year for corporate criminality and malfeasance!

As we compiled the Multinational Monitor list of the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008, it would have been easy to restrict the awardees to Wall Street firms.

But the rest of the corporate sector was not on good behavior during 2008 either, and we didn’t want them to escape justified scrutiny.

So, in keeping with our tradition of highlighting diverse forms of corporate wrongdoing, we included only one financial company on the 10 Worst list.

Here, presented in alphabetical order, are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2008.”

Energy and Green Business: The Green Inc. Blog at NYTimes.com

“The New York Times Green Inc. blog explores how the environment, climate change and finite energy resources are reshaping business and the economy.”

Scandic: Better World

One company’s approach to doing business in a healthy and environmentally sound way.

We’re green

“Effective today, DreamHost is now a carbon-neutral company. That’s awesome! But what does it mean?… It means a few things, actually! It means we’ve calculated our carbon footprint. Our footprint represents the impact of everything that DreamHost uses and leaves behind in the course of our daily work. All of the resources that we use – paper in the office, electricity for our 1300+ servers, even the gas in our cars that bring us to the office – leaves behind some kind of soul-sucking residue in the world.”

The Power of Green

“We in America talk like we’re already “the greenest generation,” as the business writer Dan Pink once called it. But here’s the really inconvenient truth: We have not even begun to be serious about the costs, the effort and the scale of change that will be required to shift our country, and eventually the world, to a largely emissions-free energy infrastructure over the next 50 years.”

The Green Options Interview: Ed Begley, Jr.

Real customer service: “The very first order I got was from a store called Lassen’s Market. Lassen’s ordered one case of this product I sell. So, I put the product in my electric car, and drove it the 35 miles to their store. The guy who signed for it, a really nice guy, was a little shocked to see me, but he signed for it, and I left. When I got home from the trip, there was a message from my broker asking ‘What did you just do?’ I told him ‘I dropped the product off. You said they ordered it, so I took it to them.’ He said, ‘They just called, and were so amazed that you brought the product to them that they want to order four more cases!’ I told him, ‘OK, whatever you say,’ and so I drove back again.”

We’re Greenpeace, and we want a fresh green Apple.

“We love Apple. Apple knows more about ‘clean’ design than anybody, right? So why do Macs, iPods, iBooks and the rest of their product range contain hazardous substances that other companies have abandoned? A cutting edge company shouldn’t be cutting lives short by exposing children in China and India to dangerous chemicals. That’s why we Apple fans need to demand a new, cool product: a greener Apple.”

Not like the 70s

“Some notes on a presentation by Thomas Friedman, who I’ve somehow managed to unconsciously steer clear of. (Doesn’t help that his stuff is behind the NY Times paywall. If he really wanted to make the impact on this green stuff, he’d get the Times to move that stuff out in the open so us proles can link to it and discuss it.) Here’s Friedman’s five reasons why ‘this is not your father’s energy crisis’ (ie the 1970s)…”