Weekend Roundup: Start-ups and Big Companies Doing Good

Dane Carlson points to FloodFight, a start-up whose self-inflating sand-bags use not sand but a material that expands when wet to help control floods.

Every time I haul a plastic bag full of garbage, including empty plastic bottles and aluminum cans, which my town supposedly separates out at of unsorted waste , I can't help but imagine pioneer days of riding in to town for some provisions. Certainly a frontiersman didn't walk out of the town general store with a station wagon full of overly packaged food; I picture a burlap sack with a bunch of raw ingredients in it (a handful of eggs, a lump of lard, and a big clay jug of Diet Dr. Pepper)...anyway, packaging seems to be stuck in an recycling mentality era, when maybe the focus should be on changing and reducing it. Tetra Pak is one packaging innovator trying to just that, in conjunction with municipal governments like St. Paul, Minnesota.

Ikea joins the ranks of companies whose corporate leases are going Prius, says Treehugger.

The Dave Thomas Foundation announces the 100 Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in the U.S., led by Citizens Financial Group (Rhode Island).

Greenprint not only sells a software that reduces the amount of paper you (or your company) use when you print; they also offer a font (Evergreen) that saves more paper AND they give you a tree when you buy the software. In terms of the economics of using Greenprint, remember that it's not just the paper you're saving, but more importantly the expensive ink.

NAU has a fantastic blog.


Take the SURVEY: 2o Questions About Considerate Consumers and win TOMS Shoes!