However, I don't think Toyota is in as much trouble as the press would have us believe. The prospect of owning a vehicle that can't be controlled is a frightening prospect, but these problems have only affected a tiny minority of customers. Most Toyota owners haven't had these problems and continue to express confidence in the company.

This confidence that Toyota will get it right in the end is due, in large part, to goodwill — and Toyota enjoys two types of enduring goodwill.

The first is their commitment to quality and to the customer's ownership experience. No automaker delivers on this better than Toyota. I saw it in action as a consultant to their dealership education program about five years ago. Toyota had a fantastic reputation for quality even then, but the customer experience often fell apart in the independently-owned dealerships when folks went in to buy a car. They sometimes got the same sleazy treatment you get at any dealership. Toyota made a huge effort to eliminate that unpleasantness and replace it with one of respect and transparency. It was so successful that it resulted in a trend that was subsequently adopted by many competitors. The dealership purchase experience isn't perfect, but it is now much more in line with Toyota's overall reputation for quality and customer service.

Another source of goodwill wells from their pioneering efforts in fuel-economy and alternative fuel technology - the Prius being a particularly visible example. In my book, The Gort Cloud, I talk about how 'green goodwill' can help companies bounce back from the inevitable potholes in the road to growth. Factoring the future of the planet into their calculations of future profits has paid off for Toyota in immeasurable ways.

Toyota and its partners have a lot of work to do to repair cars and a reputation, but their consistent investment in goodwill will make that job easier. I have no doubt that all this will pass, and Toyota will be a better company for it.

 
This article originally appeared on the Huffington Post.

Clothes dryers use a lot of energy. A recent article in The New York Times suggested that "clothes dryers use at least 6 percent of all household electricity consumption." Dryers also reduce the life and quality of your clothes. All that lint? That is your clothes dissolving away. It's much better to hang them out to dry, but that is not always practical given weather and the suitability of yards for a clothesline. Some even complain that outdoor lines are an eyesore. An alternative is to hang your clothes on racks inside, but that can be messy and the clothes can take a while to dry completely.

At our old house, we have a built-in solution. Our washer and dryer are in a storage room along with the forced air heating unit and the hot water heater. Because the furnace and the hot water heater produce a lot of excess heat in the winter, my wife got the idea of hanging clothes in our storage room on racks. The outcome? It works like a charm. The clothes actually dry faster in there than they do during the summer on our outdoor clothesline. That got me thinking.

What if home designers added a 'dry room' to their plans - a place where the furnace, water heater (or tankless water heater) and washer/dryer could live together along with built-in lines or racks for drying? All that excess heat that is normally vented and wasted could be used to dry the family laundry, particularly in the winter when outdoor line drying is not always possible.

It's a simple idea, but an idea that could make a major impact if every architect and homebuilder integrated this into future home building designs.

 
This article was originally published on The Huffington Post.

The green movement has been growing steadily here in Japan for many years now. We can find organic groceries, organic farms and restaurants, and all the usual domestic and imported LOHAS-style household and personal care goods. Kyoto has become the Portland, Oregon or Burlington, Vermont of Japan. My friend and former colleague, Jens Jensen , has written several books on community organic gardening in Japan. He also works for the Danish embassy here. But this is the first that I've heard about an onsen attached to its own organic farm.

This particular place is located on an irregular, steep sided and narrow valley. It's heavily wooded with sheer cliffs, which explains where the influence for those classical Japanese scroll paintings comes from. Nevertheless, the beauty is in the fact that this resort is almost entirely self-sufficient. Except for electricity and some fuel oil for heating, everything comes from the farm - including livestock feed and building materials. It's also a balanced farm with mixed crops and farm animals. But instead of the European cows and pigs we find in the US, here its native wild bore, deer, ducks and brook trout. Sure, these animals are caged, but they eat a fairly normal diet. The deer feed on grasses. The chickens are housed outside and peck around for their meals. Even the trout are raised in ponds large enough to attract flies that compose much of their diet. Everything is prepared and cooked right here, including the Japanese onions the area is famous for.

It must be a very labor-intensive operation, but I was surprised to hear that just eight people work here full time. The gardens are tended by 'farm consultants' who come in from the local village and just work during the growing season. In the winter, the staff settle into a routine of serving the guests.

So, here's a little share by way of a photo essay. Enjoy.

Well, there actually is a river runs through it.

Little streams run everywhere, diverted from the river running along the property. The onsen's name means 'clear current'.

These carp are decorative, but are also dinner.

Of course, all the rock formations and gardens are manmade, but done long ago in a style that honors nature.

The rock archway leading to the men's onsen bath, called rotenburo.

Gives me ideas for our backyard. Hum?

Native plants were in bloom all around the edges of the forest.

The funky lobby. This isn't a slick tourist spot. It's a bit off the beaten track and is run like a farm, which gives it more charm than the more commercial onsen retreats.

There are four very large fish ponds on the property where they raise brook trout . . . also for dinner, also for breakfast.

We were told that Bambi and his pals are pets.

There was deer on the menu, but we were told that it was provided by local hunters.

The buildings are made mostly from local materials using local carpenters in the traditional Japanese style.

I was really fascinated with the construction details. No nails. No screws.

This is great. They use a tree trunk to hold up the roof during construction, and then chop it off when done.

The land is clean enough to support frogs.

All the food served here is grown or raised on the property. It's all organic.

Things grow like crazy in the summer, but it will all be covered in snow in about two months.

We asked them about pests. They make a concoction of ginger, shochu, vinegar, garlic and red peppers that is then diluted and sprayed on the plants.

The insects are repelled but not killed. They also alternate rows with garlic and pepper plants.

They keep a pen with wild bore . . . also dinner.

The shed way out back. Is this where the evil deed is done?

These lanes covered in crushed rock lead to the various fields and stock pens.

They are famous for their onions in this area of Japan.

The buildings amble across the landscape leading to one discovery after another.

Thermal panels to help heat the onsen water, which is only luke warm at this place.

Chickens and ducks are raised on the property. It's caged all around to keep predatory critters out.

No dryer. Everything hung outside to dry.

Inside one of the original buildings with its first two-person ofuro soak.

Their one-person electric utility vehicle.

Breakfast. Everything is from the farm except for the rice, which is grown nearby.

Here in this egalitarian middle class society, they have one of the healthiest populations among industrialized nations despite the fact that they smoke like chimneys. According to a recent post in The New York Times,

"Japan has about the lowest per capita health care costs among the advanced nations of the world, and its population is the healthiest. That is largely due to lifestyle factors, such as low rates of obesity and violence, but the widespread availability of high-quality health care is also important."

In Japan, adequate health care is a right that comes with being a member of this hard working society. Their government does not allow health care to become a major profit center for big businesses at the expense of public welfare.

With this in mind, I mentioned my particular situation to a Japanese colleague. I explained that I had a very mild heart attack about nine years ago. It was a wake-up call. I had gained a bit of weight, and my cholesterol was up slightly. Since then, I've been taking my meds and watching my diet. Today, the doctors can find no sign of artery disease, but no insurance company will give me coverage. Their adjusters simply right me off because of my 'pre-existing condition'. My friend wonders if that is legal. Sadly, it is completely legal, and then I quoted from an article by T.R. Reid for the Washington Post,

"American health insurance companies routinely reject applicants with a "preexisting condition" - precisely the people most likely to need the insurers' service. They employ armies of adjusters to deny claims. If a customer is hit by a truck and faces big medical bills, the insurer's "rescission department" digs through the records looking for grounds to cancel the policy, often while the victim is still in the hospital."

So, what is the solution to our national health care crisis? In my opinion, it begins with insurance and pharmaceutical industry regulation - like they do in Japan and in other countries. Of course, these industries are large and powerful. They exert a lot of influence in Washington DC and through their mouthpieces at News Corp and the WSJ. Nevertheless, we need to ask ourselves, "is this a nation 'of the people and for the people' or is this a nation that serves the interests of business at the expense of the people's business?" I don't believe the Founding Fathers ever imagined that business would grow so powerful that its voice would drown out that of the people. Maybe it's time to pass that constitutional amendment to kick business and other special interests out of government?

Follow Richard Seireeni on Twitter: www.twitter.com/seireeni

 
This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post.

And while we're at it, let's not talk about climate change, environmentalism or being socially responsible. Instead, let's talk about efficiency and reflecting the true cost of our lifestyle choices in our product prices. This is the surest way to move our society toward a sustainable future.

We are approaching the eye of the needle when smarter companies realize that we are running out of cheap resources and the cost of raw materials will only go higher. The recent run-up and subsequent decline in gasoline prices is indicative of a worldwide trend in higher raw material costs. Given increased population, increased demand from developing countries and a finite planet, this should come as no surprise to anyone — even climate change deniers.

At the same time, budget-starved governments are increasingly reluctant to subsidize the inefficiencies, waste and toxic byproducts of business, like carbon that will inevitably become a cost of production and will ultimately be reflected in higher consumer prices. In fact, wherever we see huge corporations, we are likely to see huge subsidies and deferred costs.

Why is it that government foots most of the bill to clean up rivers, estuaries and Superfund sites, problems caused by business? Why should government subsidize the oil industry — or the nuclear industry? Why doesn't the price of a nuclear-generated kilowatt-hour reflect the 100-plus years needed to decommission a plant, or to bury the spent fuel, or to properly insure lives and property in the event of accident? Why don't we see the health costs of burning coal reflected in that industry's energy prices? Why isn't the cost of recycling plastic bottles or pulling them out of the ocean built into the price of a Coke? Why should giant agribusiness receive farm subsidies designed for smaller family farms while evading the medical costs associated with modern eating habits they promote?

Conservatives and some pro-business groups howl when any change to promote green business practices gets floated, but why should elected officials support corporate socialism when they won't support civic socialism? Why should taxpayers support dinosaur industries when those subsidies could be used to seed new, more efficient and healthier ones? Why should a kilowatt-hour of clean wind energy cost more than one that comes from dirty coal, when the difference is hidden in deferred cost and subsidies?

Environmentalism and climate change is a convenient whipping boy for those intent on protecting vested interests. However, if the subject is changed to address efficiency and the elimination of subsidies to inefficient businesses, we have a new dialog based on price.

In this environment, companies that rapidly move toward more efficient models (call it greening if you like) will survive. Those that don't won't.

Richard Seireeni is president of The Brand Architect Group, Los Angeles, a strategic brand consultancy with affiliated offices in Tokyo and Shanghai. Richard Seireeni is the author of The Gort Cloud, a new book that describes the invisible network that is powering today's most successful green brands, published by Chelsea Green Publishing.

This article was originally published on GreenBiz.com.

There was no disagreement among attendees that Africa needs, even requires a sustainable future. The extraction industries have run wild here with no regulation that cannot be bought or bent to their will. The issue of Blood Diamonds was brought to the world's attention, but oil, mineral and timber extraction continues to fuel tribal conflicts that lead to the unraveling of communities and environmental destruction on a massive scale. The raw materials used to make your cell phone? They are fueling a ten-year war in East Africa. The piracy off the coast of Somalia? Its root cause is exploitation of Indian Ocean fisheries and toxic dumping. Clearly, the current system of resource extraction must shift to a more ecological and sustainable one.

Africa also needs better infrastructure, affordable sources of power and confident trading partners. Africa needs sustainable economic growth, but there is much disagreement on how sustainability should be achieved.

There are powerful forces at work in Africa driven by resource-hungry nations like China, the US and those of the EU. This is further encouraged by the World Bank that defines progress by the number of dams, highways and bridges it funds. Modern high-output agriculture with its dependence on water, fertilizer and GMO seed stock is also defined as progress, but never mind the downstream pollution and shrinking lakes. Improved sanitation and vaccines have contributed to increased health, but also increased population; and, all of this puts a heavy burden on Africa's ability to grow in a sound and sustainable way.

Progress also means profit. Large-scale progress produces vast amounts of cash that flows through the hands of multinationals and government officials with little trickle down to the average African. So, it's no surprise that one view of sustainability is driven by these forces. In these circles, sustainable solutions are discussed on a grand scale, like harnessing the vast wind and geothermal resources of East Africa or tapping the enormous water reserves in Congo. Large-scale carbon trading schemes are also part of the mix. These plans, some of which are needed, are huge and require huge, mostly foreign investment. The problem is that foreign investors and foreign aid programs often promise more than they deliver, leaving these projects chronically short of funds. When corners are cut, the environment suffers.

But there is another view. It is an opinion that the most progress can be made by direct assistance to the poorest and most populous Africans through micro-financing and clever inventions. It's simple things like the high-efficiency Berkeley Darfur Stove that reduces long journeys into the bush to collect firewood that in turn reduces deforestation, or the Q Drum that makes it easier to transport water in rural areas, or Professor Wangari Maathai's program to pay women and rural farmers to plant and maintain watershed trees.

One of these amazingly simple ideas enables sons and daughters who move to the city to transfer money to their parents who remain in rural communities. This is a homegrown Kenyan idea that is enormously successful and provides money to Africa's poorest citizens.

The idea is called M-PESA, a Safaricom system that uses mobile phones to transfer money instantly via SMS. No bank account is required. In Africa, they never had the luxury of a wired telephone system, so mobile wireless leaped ahead. Even poor country villages have wireless service and many rural people have cell-phones. A Kenyan cooked up the idea of M-PESA, and it makes a lot of things possible - including a sustainable future for Africans. Poor people in rural areas can buy high-efficiency stoves with M-PESA or receive deposits for chickens and vegetables sold to city markets. They can also receive money from children who leave the village to find employment in the city. Funds deposited to phones can be turned into cash at village shops.

Building on this and similar platforms is the ingenious idea of a San Diego businessman, David Palella, to provide direct payment to rural people who offset their carbon production with high-efficiency stoves.

"The cell-phone-based Carbon Micro Credit system employs SMS (simple message service) and unique identifiers to allow millions of families in the Developing World to claim on a bi-weekly or monthly basis the carbon offsets they produce by using more efficient cooking methods such as a modern charcoal stove or solar cooker, instead of an inefficient open-pit fire burning biomass. As a result, each family is able to monetize directly its own contribution to mitigating global warming, while also reducing nationwide rates of deforestation and desertification."

The concept is promoted by David's non-profit, Carbon Manna.

In addition to Carbon Manna, there are a number of other organizations working toward a model of African sustainability including the Partnership For African Environmental Sustainability, Conserve Africa, Fair Trade In Tourism South Africa, All Africa, and the Kenya Organic Agricultural Network. The Green Living Project is currently documenting sustainable projects throughout Africa. For those who have read my book, you will see the beginning of an African gort cloud in this list.

So, how can David Palella's idea and that of thousands of other business leaders transform the world's view of Africa? The key is sustainability. Sustainability is a brand driver that has the power to change the conversation from 'basket case' to 'land of opportunity'. Just as sustainability has been used to change the nation brand of New Zealand and the city brands of Curitiba, Brazil and Portland, Oregon, sustainability can completely change our impressions of Africa. An African brand driven by sustainability can reassure investors and produce lucrative markets for organic food, eco-friendly textiles and properly managed natural resources. An African brand driven by sustainability can establish new rules for participation in African growth, one that extends its rewards to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. A commitment to sustainability can demonstrate that all Africans - the stakeholders in the African brand - have a vision for a future that provides economic growth and environmental protection.

Many nation-branding experts have been pondering how to change the West's negative impression of the African brand. I think the solution is sustainability.

Richard Seireeni is president of The Brand Architect Group, Los Angeles (www.brandarchitect.com), a strategic brand consultancy with affiliated offices in Tokyo and Shanghai. Richard Seireeni is the author of a new book on the marketing experiences of over two-dozen US green companies published by Chelsea Green Publishing. The book is titled The Gort Cloud (www.TheGortCloud.com) and describes the invisible network that is powering today’s most successful green brands.

This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.

The first indication is on TV. NHK, the national broadcaster here, has been hosting a series of shows on the environment under the theme NHK Eco 2009. Eco, by the way, is the catchall word for things green, natural, organic, environmental or sustainable over here. NHK has been pushing this theme because Japan is currently in the "First Promise Period" of the Kyoto Protocol during which the nation has committed to reducing emissions to 6 percent lower than they were in 1990. Many economic planners also believe that sustainable technology presents one of the few opportunities for Japan's business and manufacturing future, a point NHK makes clear in their interviews.

However, when I visit the local grocery store, I'm amazed to see that clerks are still individually wrapping things that are already in packaging. When I get back to my room, I end up with more bags and boxes than product. Happily, I noticed that the local Muji store and the McDonalds have signs by the cash register begging customers to forgive them for not triple wrapping purchases. This appears to be part of the Team Minus 6 percent government program to reduce CO2 emissions by 1 kg per person per day.

I noticed that Panasonic had a large display at the fashionable Tokyo Midtown shopping center showcasing its Eco Ideas initiative. They are demonstrating super energy efficient household appliances that contribute to an ambitious plan to produce an Eco Ideas House that uses "advanced technologies for saving, creating, and storing energy, and utilizes natural elements of wind, light, water and heat… with virtually zero CO2 emissions…". I had an opportunity to visit one of their model homes today, and it is impressive. They are prefabricated in a factory and assembled on site complete with solar panels, electrical systems, appliances and even high efficiency lighting all manufactured by Panasonic.

On a similar note, there is the newly launched "Fukuoka Hydrogen Town" project that is using two model communities to demonstrate state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell technology to generate both electricity and hot water for individual residences. "This system can cover about 60 percent of the power consumption and about 80 percent of the hot water supply of typical households," according to Japan for Sustainability. The number of companies involved in these CGC or cogeneration projects reads like a who's who of Japanese business.

In addition to the speaking engagement, I'm also here to work with a Japanese vertical apparel maker. My client is known for their dedication to environmental stewardship, which leads me to the example of Teijin, the best-known maker of sustainably sourced textiles. Teijin recently announced the addition of the 100th participant to their closed-loop polyester reclamation program called Eco Circle. Teijin receives used polyester clothes from its partners, like Patagonia, to make new polyester at the molecular level. The original source of Teijin's polyester is plastic bottles so it is both sustainably sourced and reclaimed. GreenBiz.com wrote that Teijin will be supplying some of their blended polyester fabric to Sears to make eco-friendly men's suits.

Of course, word of GM's impending bankruptcy has everyone debating the future of cars over here. Will hybrids, with sagging sales, win out against EVs or hydrogen-powered vehicles? Who will come up with the most desired battery: the Koreans, the Japanese or the Chinese? And then there is news from Treehugger that Mitsubishi will be ramping up production of their i MiEV compact electric city car. The vehicle is available in Europe and Japan, but not yet in the U.S. In a case of assault and batteries, AutoblogGreen reports the i MiEV is being used in the Kanagawa Prefecture as a stealth police car. Like most EVs, the i MiEV uses lithium ion technology, like in laptops. Meanwhile Japanese and American automakers have been working to establish battery standards that could give them an edge over other countries in the quest to corner the auto battery market, according to Greentech Media.

Evidence of other changes in Japanese transportation can be seen in the number of hybrid buses and delivery trucks that are already on the road. The Japanese postal service has announced plans to move toward fuel-efficient vehicles, and I even saw a three-wheel motorcycle taxi today.

Japan has been the world's largest producer of solar cells and modules for some time. The big players are Sharp, Kyocera, Sanyo and Misubishi. The largest buyer, however, has been Germany. This may be changing as the Japanese government applies more pressure to use renewable energy. I'm seeing evidence all over: A solar powered rail station just opened in Osaka prefecture. Daido Steel is planning to install a sun-tracking solar system that will focus energy onto highly efficient power cells. While Kyushu University is planning solar collectors that will float on the ocean like water lilies. Yes, there is a lot going on.

It's beautiful this time of year in Japan. We're at the height of Sakura, the annual budding of the cherry blossoms. It's a time when Japanese are especially conscious of nature, and nowhere is nature more revered than in Kyoto, a city that has become a center for environmental action and a source for local, handmade and organic products. It's a bit like Burlington, Vermont or Portland, Oregon in that sense. The center of this ancient town is full of little craft shops and restaurants touting something they call, Slow Eco. Crafts, slow food, regional style – these are all things embedded in Japanese culture, so it's nice to see how these traditions are connecting to global environmental awareness.

To wrap this up with some finality, I can report that Tri-Wall K.K., a Japanese maker of packaging materials, has come up with an eco-friendly coffin, called, as you might guess, "Ecoffin". "The main material of the product is triple-layer board, while the fabric for the inner and outer packaging is 100-percent-rayon or 100-percent-cotton, which is a natural material. Furthermore, natural adhesives are used. In addition, the company plants 10 trees for each coffin used. For one funeral, about 300 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) are emitted, but this tree planting offsets these CO2 emissions."

I should point out that my book, The Gort Cloud, reveals how the green community is powering the development of new green brands and products in America. Is there a similar network at work here in Japan? The answer is yes. There are a number of green news organizations, government agencies, advocacy groups and green lifestyle promoters that contribute to a kind of Japanese gort cloud. Japan For Sustainability is one of my favorites with lots of short, up-to-date news items. Alterna is another green news source as is Sotokoto. The Japanese Ministry of the Environment is the ultimate source for all national environmental programs. Greenz.jp is a bit like Treehugger, while JapanGreen.tv channels information including videos to viewer's computer screens. A group called the Japan Environment Association sponsors a Green Purchasing Network, promoting eco-friendly goods and services. My Japanese partner and myself through our company, The Brand Architect Group, are also at work promoting green brand and marketing programs in Japan.

There is little doubt: Japan is building brands for the age of sustainability. They may have been a little late getting started, like the U.S., but Japanese business has heeded the call and is ramping up.

Richard Seireeni is president of The Brand Architect Group, Los Angeles, a strategic brand consultancy with affiliated offices in Tokyo and Shanghai. Richard Seireeni is the author of The Gort Cloud, a book that chronicles the marketing experiences of over two-dozen US green companies and describes the invisible network that is powering today's most successful green brands.

I've documented many of these brand development experiences in my new book, The Gort Cloud, but there are a few stories that did not make it into my book that are particularly noteworthy. One involves a new entrant in the disposable diaper category.

The diaper industry has been dominated by just a few major players: Pampers and Luvs from Procter & Gamble and Huggies from Kimberly-Clarke. The first mass-produced disposable diaper was introduced in 1948 by Johnson & Johnson, followed by the introduction of Pampers in 1961. While parents flocked to the convenience and safety of these products, they also contributed to the growth of the Throw-away Society. By 1970, Americans were going through 350,000 tons of diapers, while today disposable diapers comprise 2.1 percent of municipal waste, per Mother Jones. Adding to the problem is the popularity of adult incontinence briefs, training pants for toddlers and swim diapers. When you add up all the use-once-and-throw-it-away items we toss into landfills, it's a big issue. There's even a movement afoot to ban disposable diapers altogether in some municipalities.

In an effort to lessen health and environmental impacts, a number of new earth and child-friendly brands have entered the market, including Seventh Generation, the eco-category leader; Nature Babycare from Sweden; and TenderCare Plus, Earth's Best and Tushies all from The Hain Celestial Group. These products differentiate from the majors by being variously chlorine-free, latex-free, fragrance-free, TBT-free, etc. Nevertheless, they all wind up in landfills, and the jury is still out on whether disposable is better than reusable cloth, according to an article in Wired.

While the cost and availability of these new brands is a barrier to increased marketshare, it is amazing that they have competed as well as they have against goliaths like P&G and Kimberly-Clarke. This ability to penetrate a sewn-up market is largely due to the green community and its increasing clout. This is particularly well-illustrated by a new flushable diaper product from gDiapers.

gDiapers has an amazing brand development history. Just a few years old, this Portland, Oregon-based company is the maker of a flushable diaper that will not clog pipes if instructions are followed. The product uses many of the well-known diaper materials, fluffed pulp and super absorbent poly-acrylate, but the difference is that the plastic shell is reusable while the soiled pad can be flushed. The product was carefully vetted with sanitation departments and received certification from William McDonough's Cradle-to-Cradle program. However, the real story is in how they developed awareness within the green community with few marketing dollars and a tremendous amount of goodwill. It's a story of the gort cloud in action.

Like many nascent companies, the founders of gDiapers began building awareness in their local community, in this case, the People's Republic of Portland. The Oregonian and Oregon Quarterly were among the first to pick up the story in 2005. This was quickly followed by product-spotting hits in the green blogosphere, notably by Blogging Baby and The Greenerside, and in the green press, Metaefficient, Greener Magazine, Sustainable Industries, Triple Pundit, Grist, Lime, IdealBite, with a big hit in Treehugger in December of '05. These media channels form aspects of what I call the gort cloud, the interconnected and largely invisible community on which green businesses are dependent (in lieu of substantial marketing budgets).

It was from these trusted sources for eco-friendly information that word sprang out to traditional media. Soon gDiapers was picked up by Fast Company, USA Today, Good Morning America, PRI's Marketplace, Fortune, Time Magazine, The Washington Post and The New York Times to name a few. The word was out, but the gort cloud continued to echo the product through green channels like Ecorazzi, E Magazine, EcoStilleto, Plenty, and a rather nice cover by Jill Fehrenbacher in Inhabitots, the family oriented version of Inhabitat, a weblog devoted to the future of design and sustainability.

Of course, exposure also comes from celebrity endorsement, something that came to gDiapers in the form of a cover story in Vanity Fair in November 2007 featuring Julia Roberts. She had discovered the product through echo-effect in the green community,

"I use Seventh Generation [chlorine-free, nontoxic] diapers for Finn and Hazel, and then I was turned on to the [plastic-free, flushable] gDiapers. Henry's got a gDiaper on…. I would recommend them overall. It is flushable, but you've got to stir that thing! If you don't really break it all the way up, it doesn't go all the way down."

The Sundance Channel also featured gDiapers on the EcoBiz section of The Green show hosted by Simran Sethi in July '08.

Today, gDiapers has carved out a modest niche in the previously impenetrable disposable diaper market. Along with other alternative diaper makers, gDiapers has forced P&G and Kimberly-Clarke to yield incremental market share. It is possible that they may counter-attack with green products of their own, like Clorox did with their Green Works line, which reached a $40-million dollar market share in the first year, according to Treehugger. However, they will need to do more than Huggies did by releasing a "naturally refreshing cucumber and green tea" scented baby wipe containing potassium laureth phosphate, glycerin, polysorbate 20, tetrasodium EDTA, DMDM hydantoin, methylparaben, malic acid, aloe barbadensis leaf extract, calendula officinalis flower extract, camellia oleifera leaf extract, cucumis sativus (cucumber) fruit extract, retinyl palmitate, zea mays (corn) oil, phenoxyethanol, butylparaben, ethylparaben, propylparaben, isobutylparaben, fragrance and Vitamin E in the form of tocopheryl acetate. This is typically not the vocabulary of the gort cloud.

The gort cloud is the invisible, yet driving force behind gDiapers and other new green brands leveling the playing field and helping to change the pay-to-play marketing paradigm. It is the ever-growing and ever-louder green community demanding new innovations and changing the rules.

First to respond was Carsten Henningsen, founding director and chairman of Portfolio 21 Investments,

"Speaking from the green multinational perspective: Portfolio 21, a mutual fund investing in greener corporations worldwide, is experiencing negative performance like the rest of the world; however, this green basket of 105 companies is outperforming the markets. In other words, Portfolio 21 investors are not losing quite as much as the rest of the markets."

Well, that is reassuring, but who agrees with him? A report just released by the business consulting firm A.T. Kearney reported, "during the current economic slowdown, companies that show a "true" commitment to sustainability appear to outperform their industry peers in the financial markets. Indeed, in 16 of the 18 industries examined, companies recognized as sustainability-focused outperformed their industry peers over both a three- and six-month period, and were well protected from value erosion." And there are other reports echoing the same conclusion, some of which were aggregated in a recent article by the prolific and prescient writer, Joel Makower, in GreenBiz.com. This follows one of my own posts on GreenBiz titled, "Wall Street vs. Green Street: Who is Doing Better?"

So, like the rest of us, I'm wondering why I didn't follow the sage advice to invest in the things you believe in. Instead, my not-so-green retirement portfolio is in shambles.

So if we leave the financial investment world and head over to the personal hedge fund called "your home", we have the perspective of Chris Bartle, founder of Green Key Real Estate,

"In 2008, we definitely felt the downturn in the economy and especially in the real estate industry. We only grew revenues by 50%. However, we tripled the number of franchises we have, tripled the number of agents we have, all while most of our competitors were losing agents and offices. So, our revenue per agent declined, but we continued to attract agents and franchisees who see green as the future of real estate. We are building the business for the return of the market."

Well, they are not making more land but we are certainly making more people. When the housing market comes back, as it surely will, greener buildings should command a premium, especially given that energy costs are not going to decline and concerns about indoor environmental quality are only growing. This should be good news for three other companies featured in my book, Interface, makers of FLOR carpet tiles, YOLO Colorhouse, manufacturers of low VOC paints, and Michelle Kaufmann Designs, designer and manufacturer of green prefab homes.

Shifting gears, let's take a look at one of the founding industries in the green movement: food. It's no wonder that food was the jumping off point for sustainable and healthful products given that food is ingested: LOHAS, the pioneering lifestyle advocates in this space, are known for the mantra, "No impurities in the temple." Chief advocate for this belief is Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm,

"In general green businesses, like Stonyfield, have more loyalty from their consumers which cushions the blows in times like these. Other companies that do not have value-add propositions can only sell on price; but, when your brand offers added health, safety and environmental benefits, consumers stick with your product and look to save money elsewhere in their budget. In all of my 26 years at Stonyfield, never have I watched sales more closely - and its daily fluctuations. Our category (yogurt) is flat but we are growing slightly, so in fact we are doing better than the two leading brands in the category. Stonyfield is a sustainable brand; our competitors are not. The same is true for other leading companies - Honest Tea, Sambazon, Applegate Farms - all sustainable brands and all in double digits. Not growing as fast as they were but still growing, which in this market is excellent. So yes, the performance of sustainable brands is outpacing their counterparts, even when the market is down and the consumer is worried."

I would not be surprised to hear that three of Gary's Vermont neighbors, Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Seventh Generation and Green Mountain Coffee, would agree. They too are subjects of my book.

Rounding out this perspective are the opinions of one of the original thinkers and inventors in the green space, Spencer Brown of Rent-A-Green Box, the green moving solution. Spencer has a long history of creating solutions, more recently solutions that will bring us closer to the Age of Sustainability. Spencer shoots from the emotional hip,

"people are so tired of doing things the same old way that if there's a new choice, one that is cheaper and greener and makes sense, they (will support it because) they are doing something good for themselves and the planet… and (if) it's new, they want new… out with the old and in with the new… its like a weird thing… green business is good, bright, feels good, the right thing in a world of wrongs and mistrust… and lies and all of the BS that we are seeing… green guys are the new eco-heroes of the economy… That's a huge plus, and I think green companies are getting these fence sitters who are like.. wow… I really want something that makes me feel good… so out with the old and in with the new… and green is serving that feeling."

Well, that's how I feel. Out with the old. In with the new and the green. Damn the torpedoes. Full green ahead.