Although not the first of it’s kind, this carbon-dioxide absorbing billboard does mark a first for the Philippines, a country that doesn’t have the greatest environmental track record. Created as a collaboration between Coca-Cola Philippines and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Fukien Tea Plant Billboard helps alleviate air pollution in the surrounding area. The Fukien Tea plants, embedded in over 3000 discarded Coca-cola bottles are each capable of absorbing up to 13 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year.

So that’s all great, but where does Coca-cola come into all of this? More and more, corporations are pouring time, money and resources into their CSR ambitions. Are we naive enought to believe that billboards like this one are conceived purely for the good of the planet? Of course not, but as a tool for improving brand image, it will certainly make the head honchos at Coca-cola sleep a little better. From WWF’s point of view, they’re able to clean up pollution and promote their agenda with all the power and might of the Coca-cola marketing arm.

In future, we think that we can expect to see more of these mutually beneficial campaigns, where advertising can serve the aims of two very different organisations, to the advantage of both.

(source: www.digitaljournal.com)

With this in mind, we would like to honour some of the incredible advertising  being done in the name of ecological good. These are some examples of innovative campaigns that are changing the world for the better – and happen to be fantastic images to boot.

These posters produced for Earth Day Canada have elegantly tackled the challenge of convincing people that the human impact on the environment does and will affect them directly. These striking images bring the bleak reality of environmental destruction into our homes and a little too close for comfort.

This WWF poster goes a step further by bringing deforestation inside our bodies. This stunning image has a double meaning, not only does it position deforestation as a cancer to the planet, but suggests that losing the world’s forests will lead to an increase in pulmonary disease.

If we’re talking about advertisers that think outside the proverbial box, this poster for the ‘No Tankers’ campaign produced by Rethink Canada (Is it just us or is Canada a hotspot of great advertising?) definitely deserves a mention. In a beautifully simple piece of design, the posters show nothing except a solid black picture of an oil tanker. Printed on paper and displayed around the city, when it started to rain the image would start to drip, ultimately revealing the message ‘Oil spills affect everyone’ from under a mess of black ink.

Here WWF has tried to turn some of the attention (and affection) afforded to various endangered species such as a panda, a rhino and a gorilla, on to the emotionally neglected bluefin tuna. Whilst perhaps not as cuddly, these tuna have been over-fished almost to the point of extinction due to their popularity with sushi-lovers. WWF are trying to reduce the overall allowable catch by urging businesses in the food industry not to purchase this ugly but not undeserving fish.

These gems are just a few examples of the amazing creations being born in the the name of global good. Keep up the good work, design is mightier than the sword.

(Source: wwf.com, trendhunter.com)

For more information on what is dubbed the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this video, which is quite depressing, sheds light on the capacity of this phenomenon.

On a lighter note, it’s Friday! Our advertising this week comes from Mother New York for Target and features an amazing light show done at the Standard Hotel in New York City. The event actually happened last year, but we just came across this video today, and had to share. Watch below:

Though the extravagance of the lights wholly distracted us from the clothing featured, we thought this was a great ploy on Target’s part. As evident in the video, people all over NY got to see the show, even if they weren’t planning on it. This seems like something a major fashion house would do, so kudos to Target for executing it so well.

Happy Friday!

(source: Dvice)

The creatives in the office are constantly brainstorming, sketching, crossing-out, and re-thinking, and are known to nibble on a pen here and there. We hate asking to borrow a pen and receiving a seemingly mauled plastic tube or lending our pen out to a known pen-muncher. Hakkens undoubtedly could relate to this, hence his edible creation.

The candy used to make the pens is similar to that of candy bracelets, so it does not melt in your hand when using it. The whole pen, including the ink, is edible except for the tip where the ink is released from. This solves the problem of those half-chewed pens being strewn about the office! Furthermore, the tip can be saved and used in a different flavoured pen.

Our only qualm with this very cool invention  is what one should do if they wish to put the pen down after having chewed it a bit. Perhaps an old-fashioned quill holder would solve this germy problem? Our favorite part of the product besides its power to cure a sweet tooth is its reduction of plastic waste. So often we throw out a pen after the ink runs out without even taking into consideration how much of the product is going to waste (as Hakkens pointed out, essentially 90%). Quite the double positive.

(Sources: M. E. Design and Dave Hakkens)

Turns out, 350 grams of CO2 is equivalent to a 10 minute ride on the tube. The tree shown above takes 2 days and 10 hours to offset that amount. How many times per week do you take a tube ride that is 10 minutes long? Maybe more like 45 minutes? Samsen wants to change the way the public thinks daily–how big is your carbon footprint in terms of the life of a tree?

While developing the ATREEM, Samsen also developed a Tree Tape for Kids. The tape acts as an arts and crafts project with a real learning experience behind it. Children, or anyone, can download the PDF for the file, follow the easy instructions, and voila! The tape compares the amount of CO2 absorbed in the tree (according to its type and width) to that of a more tangible amount -  from air travel and breathing to cheeseburgers and pints of lager.

We think these are two great ways to show children and adults the reality of our carbon footprint on a smaller, relatable scale. It’s also a very innovative combination of creative and scientific design that we commend for its modernity and simplicity.

(Sources: Dezeen and dotmancando)

The habitats are also meant to house bugs, nearly all of which we would much rather have in a tree than scrambling around our offices. The housing sculptures reflect their surrounding human-sized buildings, and offer various sized homes for various sized creatures.

We would love to see what one of these looks like with a full house! We think these houses are a great way to promote urban biodiversity and show the importance of maintaining suitable livings spaces for wild animals everywhere, let alone in major cities.

(Source: GreenMuze)

According to Sean, the first couple of weeks are a bit hard, but his skin and hair very quickly adjusted to his new washing routine, and were actually healthier than before. We stand corrected! And it has other benefits: saves you loads of money, and better for the environment (all that plastic wasted!).

It actually all makes sense. Soap, and other chemicals in shower gels/shampoos/etc. actually disturb our naturally balanced ph levels. So going soap free seems to be the way forward!

Totally unrelated to this is the video of the now famous homeless guy with a golden radio voice, in case you have managed to escape all the coverage of this amazing and uplifting story – he got a job following the success of this video.

(Source: Boing Boing. Pictures: Design Geek and The Cool Hunter)

We love the design, and wouldn’t mind getting our hands on one, especially as the profits will go towards the coalition. Unfortunately, 200 were printed, and they all sold out.

[Vimeo=http://vimeo.com/15770806]

(Source: Ads of the World)

The book’s cover is made from silver birch seed – meaning that when you’re done with reading the novel, you can not just recycle it but actually plant it – giving you a lovely little silver birch tree a few years later.

This admittedly sounds like a gimick, but the author clearly does take this stuff fairly seriously. His publicity tour (across 1900 miles from LA to Vancouver) will be done entirely by bicycle, and along the route he will be staying in organic farms and eating mainly vegan power bars.

It just remains to see whether he can actually write…

(source: TreeHugger)

This is Paris’ famous Arche de la Défense… with the addition of a guerilla housing installation.

The architect behind this slightly bizarre scheme, Stéphane Malka, is seeking to illustrate what he thinks will be the future of housing.

The idea is that with housing becoming ever-more expensive and new housing becoming increasingly unsustainable, something has to give. And using structures such as the Arche de la Défense as the basis for small ‘modules’ solves both these problems.

Of course, the government and housing companies would never build these things, but Malka thinks that people will turn to this themselves as an option – hence the guerilla bit. As people turn to this, the installation would grow, almost like a parasite, and modules could be connected to create larger dwellings and small communities.

All that aside, we think this is an exceptionally cool piece of architecture. We’re not so sure about the adaptation of major landmark buildings, but the concept is just brilliant.

According to Malka, a module would cost around $3,000… considerably cheaper than a house in Paris. So for that reason alone he might just be on to something…

(source: Inhabitat)