The New Southwest / Eco Entrpreneuers

Eco Entrpreneuers

Now there’s A Great Idea!

Tucson Green Times – July 2009

Eco-entrepreneurs

Foldout restaurant has solar power, will travel

There’s nothing original about canned food – except when it’s the restaurant that comes in a can. Sitting in Montreal’s old shipping port, the Muvbox is a standard shipping container eight feet by 20 feet long. The wonder moment comes when the touch of a button miraculously turns it from a container into a chic fast food restaurant in 90 seconds.

Müvbox features a fully functional kitchen with enough space for four chefs and a wood-fired pizza oven. The walls of the container collapse to create a covered patio with enough room to serve 28 people, half of them can be seated at small bistro tables. The concept has some laudable eco features, too. The structure is a reused container and little construction is needed to install it. Müvbox’s floor is made from recycled tires and the roof contains solar panels providing up to 40 percent of the required energy.

Müvbox wasn’t developed as a one-off restaurant: it’s a business concept that can be used the world over. The price of the unit comes in at $150,000, and the basic design can be tailored to other business needs.  Check it out online: www.muvboxconcept.com

Pop-up cabins designed for stargazing

Luxury camping, anyone? The French tourism company Bocages has created a pop-up cabin for four that features a transparent dome in the roof, a telescope and a sky observation kit.

Carré d’étoiles are portable and reversible cube-shaped structures crafted with recyclable wood. Included in each parquet-floored cabin are a double bed, a sofa bed for two, a kitchenette with refrigerator and hot plates, shower, toilet, wardrobe, electric heating, bio-ethanol fireplace and cast-iron garden furniture for outside. In addition to modern conveniences like flat-screen TV and connections for MP3, phone and internet, Carré d’étoiles cabins also come equipped with bedding and towels, and extra services such as cleaning and breakfast can be added. Black-out blinds, meanwhile, facilitate use of the telescope and stargazing kit.

Launched this year, Carré d’étoiles have been installed in several holiday spots in France. Pricing is $35,240 per unit. Structures are delivered fully equipped and ready to use, with an ROI  (Return On Investment) ranging from at least 10 percent in the first year of operation to 30 percent or more in following years, Bocages says. Website: www.carre-detoiles.com.

Free zine for hotel guests via digital newsstand

Digital publisher Zinio has teamed up with Starwood to offer guests free digital copies of their favorite magazines. As of last month, a variety of well-known titles can be downloaded at Starwood’s Element hotels, with Aloft and Four Points by Sheraton joining at the end of the year.

Zinio’s ‘digital newsstand’ can be accessed on guests’ laptops in their rooms, or via a kiosk in the lobby. After logging on to the Starwood portal and registering with Zinio, guests can select as many single titles as they wish, choosing from a wide range of popular publications like Caribbean Travel & Life, Destination Weddings & Honeymoons, Field & Stream and Ski Magazine. Prices for magazines purchased through Zinio are similar to those paid for paper copies.

With editions that can be read online or off – and that are identical to their printed brethren – travelers are freed from schlepping around a bag full of paper. Zinio gets the chance to demo its service to new users, and Starwood can offer its guests magazines they actually want to read, instead of a standard selection. And there’s an environmental benefit too, of course, which is fitting since Element is Starwood’s new ‘green’ brand. Website: www.zinio.com — www.starwood.com

Twitter-powered truck delivers ice cream sandwiches

There’s a new truck roaming the streets of LA – just in time for summer – and it’s being followed by legions of devotees who track its whereabouts via Twitter. And it’s gourmet ice cream sandwiches on the menu.

Coolhaus sells handmade ice cream sandwiches from a pink and chrome converted postal jeep. Featuring local and organic ingredients whenever possible, Coolhaus sandwiches are two-by-two-inch confections, about one inch deep, assembled to order using two cookies and a scoop of ice cream. Five architecture-inspired, “prefab” flavors are currently available from Coolhaus’s two-woman team. The Frank Behry, made from sugar cookies and strawberry ice cream; the Mies Vanilla Rohe features chocolate chip cookies and vanilla ice cream, but customization is also possible, they say. The sandwiches are available with an edible, rice-paper wrapping that can feature a brand, name or logo in edible ink. Pricing is about $3 per sandwich, or $3.50 with the edible wrapper. Coming soon from the Coolhaus truck are edible spoons and popsicles shaped like famous buildings. Website: www.eatcoolhaus.com.

Leather jackets remade into designer bags

Durable and malleable, leather is an ideal material for reusing and upcycling. Seizing that potential, reMade USA just launched a line of stylish handbags made from used and scrap leather. reMade’s bags were initially made from leather jackets found in thrift stores, with details based on the original garments. The company now also gets cast-offs from the furniture and automotive industries.

reMade has around 10–15 different bags available for order on its website at any time, currently ranging in price from $125 to $365. If they’d like to breathe new life into a garment they no longer wear, customers can also supply their own leather jacket and request a design based on one of reMade’s models. Hand-crafted in San Francisco, stamped with its own unique serial number, and lined with a recycled silk scarf, each bag is inherently unique.

reMade isn’t the first to make leather jackets into bags. But as planet-friendly products jostle for attention, it’s not enough just to be green. How to stand out and create a sustainable business on top of a sustainable product? reMade’s founder, Shannon South, demonstrates the importance of building a brand: using good design and photography; showing the process and telling a story; and adding charming and recognizable details like a silk scarf lining. Website: www.remadeusa.com

Reuseable coffee cup in standard barista sizes

New on the market is the KeepCup, a sustainable, reusable alternative designed to reduce the massive waste created when coffee cups are meant to be thrown away.

The average paper cup consumes 2.5 times its final weight in raw wood, and also is coated in a polyethylene lining that makes it not just waterproof but unrecyclable. Similar in intent to “I Am Not A Paper Cup,” the KeepCup is a lightweight, reusable and recyclable cup crafted from polypropylene – otherwise known as No. 5 food-grade plastic. Two sizes are currently available – a small, 8oz. size and a medium, 12oz. version – with both a large, 16oz. size and a “Babycino” 4oz. size on the way.

Particularly notable is that Australian KeepCup replicates standard sizing on disposable coffee cups commonly used by coffeehouses, so it can be substituted for paper cups without any modification; the small and medium cups fit directly under the nozzle at the coffee machine. Cups, lids, plugs and silicone bands can be mixed and matched to create colorful combinations, and the cups are dishwasher-safe on the top rack, with an estimated lifespan of four years. Melbourne-based KeepCup is targeting cafes and employers with the product; corporate branding is available. Introductory pricing on the KeepCup begins at $7.75 for the small version.

KeepCup is currently seeking “crusaders” to manage and distribute its cups in overseas markets. Given that Australians alone use some 500 million disposable cups each year – throwing out 951 every minute – there’s sure to be considerable opportunity in virtually every neck of the woods. Website: www.keepcup.com.au

Europcar teams up with Nissan for electric rentals

Europcar is teaming up with Nissan to offer electric vehicles for hire. Low emission rental vehicles are nothing new for Europcar (or many other rental agencies, for that matter); models such as the Toyota Prius have been part of its 225,000 strong fleet for years. However, it seems to be the first time that a rental company and car manufacturer are jointly offering a design that’s not just low emission, but no emission.

After introducing electric versions of existing models, Nissan plans to develop entirely new models that will be made available through Europcar. The company hopes to offer a wide range of zero-emission vehicles at all the usual rental locations like airports, train stations and local kiosks by the end of 2010. Besides helping Europcar stand apart from other rental companies and providing Nissan with a guaranteed market for a large number of electric vehicles, the alliance will give consumers the opportunity to try out an unfamiliar product in a real-world setting. Website: www.europcar.com.

Source: www.springwise.com