Anthropologist Margaret Mead once said: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

If you’ve ever doubted this, look no further than Cadbury chocolate.

Last month we reported that Cadbury decided to add palm oil to its chocolate in Australia and New Zealand. The company insisted it was doing so not to save money but to “improve” its chocolate as the palm oil produced a “softer” product than chocolate made with real cocoa butter.

The reaction of the Australian and Kiwi …

Tags: Cadbury chocolate , choclovers , Matathew Oldham , palm oil , social media , twitter

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The current economic climate has been nothing short of brutal for many eco-designers, but where there are challenges, there are also opportunities for growth.

SUST, an eco-label out of San Francisco, sees their own challenges as a way to reconnect with America and carry the torch for sustainable apparel.

Kicking off a “Sustainability Across America” tour co-sponsored by EcoSalon, cmarchuska, Indigenous Designs, I love Ryann, Restore Clothing and Guayaki Yerba Matte tea, the tour will tape interviews …

Tags: cmarchuska , EcoSalon , facebook , Guayaki Yerba Matte Tea , I Love Ryann , Indigenous Designs , Restore Clothing , Sust Across Amercia , sustainable design , twitter

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Chris Brogan, President of  New Marketing Labs

Social media’s newest darling (Twitter) has become a very important platform for eco-designers and boutiques to connect with the public and each other.

Women’s Wear Daily recently featured an in-depth look at fashion brands and how social media – Twitter included – is radically changing the way fashion brands engage with their customers online, forming “relationships with a community of customers, particularly consumers for whom the Web is as important as a limb.” (WWD boasts that its own Twitter page has …

Tags: Chris Brogan , eco fashion , New marketing Labs , social media , twitter , WWD

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Of all the things I’ve come across as we near an increasingly greenwashy Earth Day, one stands out because of its simplicity and transparency. The founders of Energy Circle, a home-energy efficiency ally whose staff all test and use the products they sell in their own homes, will make their home energy use public, broadcasting it both through their website and live on Twitter at EnergyCircleKW.

They’ve hacked their best-selling device, The Energy Detective, a “real-time home electricity monitor that is the equivalent of a …

Tags: Earth Day , electricity monitor , Energy Circle , Energy Detective , energy efficiency , guest , home , Paul Smith , twitter

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First up – is there really such thing as a green gadget? Answer: define “green”, says Wired. And is it really cheaper to recover gold from junked electronics than to mine it out of the ground? (Amateur gold panners, please form an orderly queue at your local landfill.)

Things doubling up as other things afterward – we like. So Paul Clark’s design for a plant pot doubling as a birdhouse – seen here at designspotter – is an intriguing …

Tags: gadget , green , led , love , max gladwell , peta , planetsave , sheep , twitter

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