I am keen to know how Viv get on. A consumer and sustainability-focussed company, their premise is that if consumers take a green sticker they create and stick it on the front of their debit or credit cards, participating retailers will agree to go green based on the take-up of the scheme. People can look at the progress of these retailers on the site. I think it is interesting because it motivates businesses to take action based on something they can see coming through the door, or the number of concerned patrons rather – something concrete. Ideally of course all businesses should switch to sustainable practices ASAP, but this is the real world and since that’s not going to happen tomorrow, I think this initiative is a great way for people to physically make a difference to places that they frequent – and cause the owners of those establishments to change too.
Set up by a San Francisco-based team from Stanford, its reach is currently limited to the San Francisco area, but hopefully that will change. I’d target university and school students first, then businesses with a clear mission to be sustainable – or even a company like Google, whose employees, from what I hear, are the sort to champion a cause like this.
[Via Josh Spear]
One Size Fits One 