The latter has long been a focus of the green development. One need only look at the mass of stories coming out of the Middle East and Asia to see that a green focus on design and architecture is now more important than ever.

Read more of this story »

Environmentally Friendly Biofuel?

A Swedish bus company is marketing it’s use of environmentally friendly biofuels by depicting humans drinking from petrol pumps.

Needless to say the Swedish Poison Information Center is up in arms over the Flygbussarna Airport Coach company’s advertisements.

Read more of this story »

The recently completed National Geographic/GlobeScan “Consumer Greendex,” rather than measuring the overall “greenness” of each nation looks specifically at consumer behavior and tells a different story than that of traditional measurements of sustainability by country.

The US, still doesn’t fare very well

The findings show that consumers in Brazil and India tie for the highest Greendex score for environmentally sustainable consumption at 60 points each. They are followed by consumers in China (56.1), Mexico (54.3), Hungary (53.2) and Russia (52.4). Among consumers in wealthy countries, those in Great Britain, Germany and Australia each have a Greendex score of 50.2, those in Spain register a score of 50.0 and Japanese respondents 49.1. U.S. consumers have the lowest Greendex score at 44.9. The other lowest-scoring consumers are Canadians with 48.5 and the French with 48.7.

Read more of this story »

• 47 percent trust companies to tell them the truth in environmental messaging
• 45 percent believe companies are accurately communicating information about their impact on the environment
• 61 percent of Americans say they understand the environmental terms companies use in their advertising

Read more of this story »

Warning: so, as the video and Oprah’s darling du jour and guerrilla closet warrior Peter Walsh so clearly outlines, our pack-rat habits are making us chubby. They can also be a barrier to us going green. Not surprising, did you notice that your lean and toned friends also tend to have pretty darn spotless, sustainability-forward and organized homes, while your plumper friends tend to lavish in “chaotic creative” spaces. Hmmm…

Read more of this story »

An http://www.greenprinteronline.com dispatch.

When companies make the shift to reduce the carbon footprint of their supply chain, paper is one of the first – but perhaps most overlooked – ways to shed those office carbon pounds.

But the carbon, environmental and cost savings benefits of switching from virgin paper to more sustainable paper didn’t escape Sustainable Business Design - a consulting firm that provides carbon footprint, greenhouse gas audits and “The Low Carb Corporate Diet” ™ service.

Nancy E. Landrum, Ph.D., of SBD demonstrated that a local, multi-site client who had not thought about paper purchasing as a way to “go green” experienced “immediate environmental and financial success in their quest for green” by simply making the change to recycled paper.

But how big of a success was it exactly?

“The final combination of paper choices recommended to the client represented a 10% cost savings, 13% fewer carbon dioxide emissions, and 35% fewer trees when compared to their previous product,” says Landrum.

And, if offering climate change and carbon strategies that work wasn’t enough, Landrum oversees a blog worth reading at http://www.sustainablebusinessdesign.blogspot.com, check out the January 30 post for a list of useful webinars like “A Guide to Green Purchasing (Feb. 20)”. It’s like attending a green learning conference across the country minus the across country flight emissions – we are loving it.

Green Printer offers ultra sleek, sustainable and 100% post-consumer paper to help your organization save trees and reduce your carbon footprint - the easy and cost-effective way. More details at www.greenprinteronline.com.

Today I received a very nice surprise. The exact kind of surprise a new business owner and fervent blog writer loves to receive. Our company made it onto TreeHugger!

For anyone who has not seen the article, you can read it here.

I have been a long time reader of TreeHugger, and saw the post that Tamara had done on a similar site in Europe, Erento.com - but I was sure happy to see that we hadn’t fallen through the cracks in our efforts to bring this excellent opportunity to the United States.

For anyone who is curious to learn more about our service, click here to take our short survey. Make sure to leave your email address at the end and we will send you updates for when our site launches.

In the article, Tamara makes a very important point. I have quoted her here:

“Rental” has typically been synonymous with the less affluent that can’t afford to buy something outright, so instead pays an ongoing fee for the receipt of using it. But in a world of finite natural resources, waste and the legacy of post consumer goods becoming everyone’s issue, renting and not having the burden of owning and then dealing with the disposal or storage of goods is a compelling proposition.

We all feel that this is a very exciting time in the world. While we are confronted with so many important issues, we are also faced with incredible opportunities. We fully believe that together we can find solutions that will make sense for everyone, and make the world a better place to live.

It is really an honor to make it onto a blog that we respect so much. Again we would like to welcome all the new visitors we have from TreeHugger, and extend a special “Thank You” to Tamara for writing such a nice article about us.

On August 13th I posted some information about the new podcast I am doing, GreenTech.fM. It is a bi-weekly interview between myself and a Topanga green architect who not only shares a love for new technologies but also has some incredible innovations of his own. We have received a great response to the show since its launch. We hoped people would like the show, but little did we know that we were going to get hugged by people we had never met!

If you haven’t taken our survey yet, please go here now. Click Here to take it now!

Huggs for iRent2u

One of the ways in which we have gotten a great response is from a relatively new site called Hugg.com. Hugg is a website for people who are interested in green news. Green being a catchall phrase for things environmental in nature, likes issues related to global warming or pollution.

The way the Hugg site works is that people read the short articles, and then vote for the ones they support or agree with. When I posted a snippit of our press release onto the site to see if anyone cared, the response was incredible!

Of all the posts on the website, ours has the 7th highest votes. There have been a total of 29 different people who have “Hugged” our article, plus people have left great comments. Here is a picture of the site and our Huggs.

So we are very excited about all the attention we have gotten for that. What seems a bit strange to me is that the whole time we have been fighting neck and neck with Bart Simpson. What do I mean?

Bart Simpson and His Prius?

If you take another look at the Hugg page, you will find that right above us is another post about Matt Groening driving a Prius. The article is very creatively title “Bart Simpson Drives a Prius”, and if you read the source you will see it details Matt Groening’s entire life, from the perspective of which car he owned. (yawn)

Here is a screen shot of that darned Bart Simpson article:

I know I am biased, but to me a new podcast that is focused on praising and publishing all the incredible new technologies that scientists and entrepreneurs are creating is more interesting than the fact that a famous cartoonist now drives a Prius. But I guess I can only leave that up to the readers at Hugg to decide.

Either way we are happy with our Huggs. This makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and so we wanted to say thank you.

Oh yeah, and if you wanted to help us beat out Bart Simpson, we wouldn’t mind.

Please go to this link here. http://www.hugg.com/node/529 Create an account, and click the little plus symbol underneath the Counter that shows how many Huggs we have recieved.

Thanks for your support!

With our impending press release for my new podcast, GreenTech.fM, I am sure we are going to see some fresh visitors to this site. For all of you let me appease your curiosity by explaining what iRent2u is.

What is iRent2u.com?

iRent2u.com is “The Online Rental Marketplace”. A place that allows everyone to get more from what they already have. It is recycling on steroids. It is a concept long overdue.

In the most simple terms possible, iRent2u.com is a new website, set to launch this fall, which will allow everyone to rent and borrow their private belongings from their neighbors. Imagine if eBay did a site for rentals, this would be it.

This is revolutionary because everyone has valuable things they own that just sit around most of the time. If we can find a way to help people get more out of what they already own, the world will be a better place. People will save money by not buying things they don’t need. Others will make money by lending out things they already have.

More money + Less trash = Happy People & Happy World.

Read more about what we are doing here…

Why Are We Doing it? We want to make the world a better place. We want to use the internet for what it was created for, to change the world. We want to do our part to stop pollution & waste. And oh yeah, we also want to get back all that money we spent on our expensive educations. =^)

So Much Potential

There really is incredible potential in making the world more efficient. If we can help out just a little bit, we can make a dramatic difference in many peoples lives. We offer some people a new way to make money, while offering others a way to reduce storage space. We help people get more from less, and others get things they could never before afford.

And the best part about it, is that we are having a blast doing it!

Tell us what you think in our quick survey here!

So enjoy the site!

Check out some screen shots on this page. http://irent2u.com/blog/how/

Get up close and personal with us, and see who has helped us out on this page. http://irent2u.com/blog/about/

Find out where & when we are launching on either of these pages

• where http://irent2u.com/blog/where/
• when http://irent2u.com/blog/when/

Read all my rantings about rentals and our company by just scrolling down the page.

Or shoot us an email and tell us what you think here http://irent2u.com/blog/contact/

Either way, we would like to welcome you to our site, invite you to sign up for our newsletter to be informed when we launch in your area (over in the blue box on the right), and have an all around great time.

Sincerely,

Tim McCormack
Co-Founder iRent2u.com

GreenTech.fM, a podcast series with entrepreneur & co-founder of iRent2u.com, Tim McCormack, and renowned green architect Robert Mechielsen, is now available online. So far 3 shows have been published (shows zero, one and two), with new shows to be announced every second Tuesday.

The series focuses on current and future environmentally friendly technologies that have the potential to correct and prevent issues created by pollution, overpopulation and energy dependency.

When asked why he was doing a podcast on green technologies, at the same time he was starting an ecommerce site for rentals, Tim McCormack said “We all have to pay attention to what is happening in the world. At iRent2u.com we believe strongly in creating systems that support positive environmental stewardship. Our business model at iRent2u is focused on helping people be more efficient, save money, and reduce waste; but we are far from the only company doing this. I wanted to help everyone become aware of all the incredible things entrepreneurs are doing to make the world a better, safer, & cleaner place.”

Robert Mechielsen, a “green” architect from Holland who now lives in Topanga, CA. had this to say. “This is so exciting. Every day we find new companies and technologies that are breaking all the rules. From the zero emission Tesla motor car, to the enormous growth in wind energy, and the incredible breakthroughs in construction that create homes with 80% to 90% less energy use, it is truly a revolution. As I have dedicated the last 25 years of my life towards building homes that are both beautiful and have low emissions, this is a topic that is very important to me. I love looking at all the new technologies, and can’t wait to start interviewing all the wonderful people who are making these breakthroughs.”

What is a podcast?

A podcast is like a radio show, except instead of turning on your radio, you go to a website and download it (for free). Many people then put these shows onto their iPods (hence the name “pod”cast) and listen to them when convenient. One nice feature of podcasts is that you can subscribe, using programs like iTunes (free from apple.com). Once you subscribe they download automatically to your computer, making it easy to stay current.

“On this show we focus 100% on the heroic efforts of inventors, engineers and investors to create technologies that will counter Global Warming,” Tim also mentioned. ” Many green publications spend all their time trying to scare people. Of course informing people of the dangers is important, but this is not our focus. We start the show with the assumption that people know something needs to be done, and then go from there. We see such incredible potential, and are truly excited to share that with the world. It is a very different message.”

To this Robert added “the Green movement is no longer just for hippies and extremists. Finally green has gone mainstream. Millions of entrepreneurs, scientists, and investors all over the world now realize there is big money to be made in efficiency, cleanliness, and in sustainable economic systems. It is a very exciting time!”

The Shows:

The first 11 shows are conversational style between Tim and Robert, with Robert the expert on current green technologies and Tim asking the questions that anyone new to the field would ask. From show #11 on, there will be interviews with leading scientists, entrepreneurs, & investors regarding the current trends and advances.

The first show, show zero, gives an introduction of the hosts and the show. The following ten shows cover such topics as:

0001 – What are Green Technologies?
0002 – 20 Emerging Green Technologies (the Rapid 20 Show)
0003 – Sustainability, Issues and Progress
0004 – Solar Power, How Does it Work?
0005 – SCIP Construction, A Revolution in Building Technology
0006 – Toxicity in Everyday Living
0007 – Using Nature to Reduce Energy Consumption
0008 – Bio Mimicry, What is it & Why?
0009 – Ecotourism, How Sexy is Green?
0010 – Land Restoration & Preservation Techniques

Don’t get left behind. Find out what is happening in the Green revolution.

GreenTech.fM is committed to quality and studies every topic before publication. The site lists links to show notes and the topics discussed for verification and further research. GreenTech.fM is dedicated to bringing green technologies to the forefront of future development.

Listen for free at www.GreenTech.fM today!

This is the question we asked ourselves last October when we began putting this company together.

How many things do you own that you don’t really need? In our survey many people told us they own multiple items that for most of the time just sit around collecting dust. Maybe its a stationary bike that you bought during a healthy kick, but now hardly use because you go jogging instead (or not).
Maybe its a tent, or a bookcase, a punching bag, some specialty tools for a one-time job, a pet carrier, a set of golf clubs, old books you have already read, your parents old furniture that is sitting in your garage… anything!

Haven’t taken the survey yet? Go here now…

The fact is, we all own things that are valuable, but are providing zero value to us. What can you do?

The first option is to just sell them. Of course you will be lucky to get half of what they cost, and then you will not have them anymore. Most people don’t want to sell their golf clubs because they only use them three times a year.

We propose a simple alternative. List your items on our site, let your neighbors borrow them, and sit back and collect the money. Everyone wins!

Your neighbors get to borrow something instead of buying it - saving money - they win.

You get to lend your items that are sitting around - making money - you win.

Together we make the world more efficient - people are buying less and thus they are throwing away less trash - all of society wins!

Together we have more. That is what we believe at iRent2u.com, and this September we will prove it to you.

One of the neat things about creating an open platform where people can rent out anything they want, is watching what people have to rent out. Of course we are a bit early to start telling you what people are renting, since we haven’t even launched yet, but we can tell you about some of the more interesting requests and comments we have seen.

Below is a listing of some of the items recommended to us by people who took the survey. Not everyone was completely serious when making suggestions, and we were a bit concerned by how many Americans today enjoy entertaining the idea of renting women, but for the most part we got a great response.
Some Interesting Suggested Items to Rent:

• Being able to “borrow” the use of expensive computer software, like Adobe CS3, would be great. I don’t do enough graphic design to want to buy this software, but I would love to be able to rent some time to use it.
• Table saw, circular saw, hot glue gun, weed wacker, hedge trimmer, electric blower, steam cleaner, tile saw
• I have found a real need to rent baby items (car seat, stroller, pack and play) when friends come in town or if I go out of town.
• What about borrow “help”? Like to fix a door, special garden work or similar?
• We might do a rental of art for corporations
• One of the biggest things on this list is the books…University book stores rip off students. This is a good way for owners of books to get the value they paid for it.
• Are you going to do things like cup of sugar? What about favors, I water your plants you water mine?

Do you have any ideas of your own? If so, take the survey and let us know. We are always interested to hear your comments. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Unique Rental Company Items:

Besides what we have seen on our survey, there are other interesting things being rented these days.

One new option is renting handbags & jewelry. A popular site for doing this is www.BagBorrowOrSteal.com This is something that I personally would never even look at, but my wife was quite taken with the idea. Unfortunately we had serious problems with the service when we tried it out, but the concept is great. Rent expensive handbags instead of purchasing them, and then you can trade in for new ones and always have a fun new bag! Be careful with the mail though, send it incorrectly and you will pay for the whole bag, which is what happened to us on our first one.
Another thing I NEVER would have thought of is renting pets! Believe it or not, www.FlexPetz.com already exists, and is helping people enjoy pets who don’t have the time to care for one all by themselves. Now how this works I cannot say, since we are talking about living animals. This does seem strange, but then again there must be situations where this works really well. Perhaps this is good for elderly folks who just are not able to care for a pet all by themselves. As a pet lover myself I am glad to know that this service exists to help out those who have had to go without in the past.

Something a bit in the future is a service called Riot & Return http://www.riotandreturn.co.uk/. This is children’s clothing from the label Keep & Share. Apparently people will pay by subscription, and then return the clothes after they have been used. This seems brilliant to me, as children’s clothing costs a lot for such a short use cycle.

Rent Everything!

We love to see new companies making rentals a more acceptable alternative. Renting increases the use of an item, decreases waste, and is an all around better options for many different things. Hopefully we can provide an abundance of new items for rent on our website once we launch. Our goal is to have at least a little of everything, with hopefully a lot of most.

Once we all start renting more, we are all going to get more from what we already have. That works perfect for us, because we strongly believe that “Together We Have More”.

iRent2u.com, the Online Rental Marketplace - What do you want to rent?

In our continuing efforts to be chosen to present at the TechCrunch20 this September 17th & 18th, iRent2u is looking for informed parties who would be willing to write endorsements of our efforts.

Does our concept speak to you? Does it make sense? Do you see the value in what we are trying to do?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, we would love to hear from you. We are looking for short one or two sentence comments regarding the concept and our progress to date.

We have already began receiving comments from people, and are excited to begin sharing them with you. Once we have collected more we will post them onto a separate page along with links back to the authors so that you know who is speaking.

To give you an idea of some of the comments we have received so far, here is a brief list (authors names are not displayed as we are still coordinating permissions for their publication)

Comments made about iRent2u.com so far:

“This website has the potential to change the face of commerce as we know it”

“Just as the saying goes: “It takes a village to raise a child”, why not “It takes a neighborhood community to raise awareness”. I believe that iRent2U is going to do just that, raise awareness about our over consumption. Going “green” is much more than just saving some gas and a little bit on your electric bill, it is a lifestyle change that means living in a way that gives back and protects rather than purchase and waste. I think if we all did just a little sharing with one another stating in our own communities, we can start a whole new way of living across the nation. iRent2U isn’t just another eBay-ish rental website; it has the power to push regular people into a different mindset—green living that includes sharing with your neighbors in an equitable fashion. Just brilliant!”

“This business idea appears to have great potential as a game changing approach to borrowing and lending and interim equipment rentals. The concept is simple and the website is also quite simple in scope. I look forward to seeing this business rollout in my area of the Midwest so I can realize value for myself, not just cost to rent from others.”

“The concept is brilliant. I have shared Nils’ “drill” thought countless times”

“oh, man, i can’t wait to start renting out my circular power saw.”

Thanks to those who have already written reviews:

This is very exciting for us, and we appreciate your support. Some people are requesting to see the actual site before writing a review, which is totally understandable. If you prefer to see the site first please send me an email and I will give you a sneak peek sometime after the 15th. We can’t make the site totally public though because we made a promise to TechCrunch not to release it openly to the public until the conference.

If You Don’t Like to Write:

Some people do not enjoy writing stuff. If you are one of these people, we would appreciate your listing us on any of the social networking sites such ad Digg.com or StumbleUpon.com. Or just tell your friends, that is enough to make us feel all warm inside. =^)

Survey Update:

In the meantime, if you have not taken our survey we would appreciate your input. You can find the survey here.

Feel free to forward the survey on to other people as well. To do so send this link. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Our survey now tops 445! People keep responding, and we appreciate your input. If things keep moving like this we will definitely hit our 1000 mark!

347 Responses & How Renting Makes You Green…

For those of you keeping track, our survey responses continue to roll in. I am happy to say that we have reached 347 total responses, well on our way to the 500 & halfway mark. If this keeps up we are sure to reach 1,000 responses, but only with your help.

If you haven’t had a chance to send out the survey to your contacts, we politely request that you do so now. It only takes 5 minutes to fill out, and would be a great help for those of us who are working feverishly to change the world.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, here is the link. Remember it is totally anonymous so please tell us exactly what you think. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=0S3pPYxkR6S0eGbiQVlZ7A_3d_3d

Are You Green? How Can You Be?

Here at iRent2u, we are trying to make the world greener. We do this by creating a system where everyone can get more from what they already have. If you can get more from what you own, then you don’t have to buy as much stuff. By buying fewer things, you save money. That means you work less. That means less waste, because there are fewer things being thrown away. Everyone wins, except the big businesses who are brainwashing us to buy their stuff.

Want an Example?

Imagine a normal neighborhood. In this neighborhood there are 100 homes. Of course everyone has to cut the grass, so traditionally that means 100 lawnmowers have been purchased to facilitate this. Some people would buy riding lawnmowers for thousands of dollars, and some people wouldn’t buy one at all, but for convenience let’s say that everyone bought this standard lawnmower from Sears for $479.

$479 times 100 homes = $47,900 spent on lawnmowers. Ouch!

That is just the money spent. Additionally each mower had to be built, creating waste. Natural resources were used, and most likely some low wage child worker in China working 100 hour weeks was exploited to do so.

Many people will get rid of their old mower after 10 years, whether it is broken or not, just because they want a newer model (maybe the new one with a drink holder - what a feature!). So let’s say that after 10 years half of the homes replace their mowers. At present day prices this costs another $23,950. Double Ouch! Not to mention that 50 lawnmowers were just thrown away into a landfill to sit for the next 10,000 years.

So what’s the alternative?

Imagine how much more efficient it would be if everyone used iRent2u.com. How much money and waste could be saved? Let’s figure it out.

According to YardCare.com a normal lawn needs to be mowed about once every week. If one lawnmower can only mow one person’s yard in one day, and you have Saturday and Sunday to do yard work, then it is very easy to imagine that two people could share one lawnmower. Using iRent2u.com, one neighbor could buy a lawnmower and the other could rent it each week. This is the most minimal example, as it would be easy for 4 or 5 houses to use one mower with a bit of coordination.

So if each two houses shared a lawnmower, that would cut the amount of mowers needed in half. So instead of spending $48,000 on lawnmowers, this neighborhood could save $24,000! Less waste, less money spent, no loss in value to anyone!

What is the individual impact?

Imagine you are person X, and you just bought your lawnmower. You spent $479 for that lawnmower from Sears. You work out an arrangement with your neighbor who borrows it once a week to cut his grass for $6 each time. Since where you live you only have to cut the grass half of the year, you lend it 26 times. You just made $156 back on the purchase of your mower. At this rate you make your money back, off only one neighbor, in a little over 3 years. Lend it to more neighbors and you can make it back in one year!

Now imagine you are person Y, and your neighbor just bought a lawnmower. It cost you nothing up front, so you could use that money for a vacation with your family. Then each week you pay $6 and still get to mow your lawn. Plus you have the option of borrowing from your other neighbor as well if they get a nicer mower (that cool one with the drink holder!). Over the course of the year you pay $156, saving $323, and you didn’t have to store the thing in your garage.

Imagine that, there is actually room in your garage for your car!

At this point maybe you can buy the new mower yourself for $323, because the price of mowers just dropped considerably (turns out fewer mowers are being purchased, so they are slashing prices). Rent or buy, either way you come out ahead.

Everyone Wins, Except the Lawnmower Companies

In a normal neighborhood, 4 or 5 neighbors could share a lawnmower without any inconvenience. This would save tens of thousands of dollars just on mowers alone. That is money that could be invested, used for vacations, or used to pay off those credit card bills.

Do this with multiple items, not just your lawnmower, and the effect is truly incredible. With one website and a bit of coordination you save thousands of dollars, have more storage space, get to know your neighbors, and reduce trash.

An Unsustainable System

The present system where everyone buys everything is unsustainable, and frankly it is ridiculous. Billions of dollars every year are quite literally thrown away. Things are purchased, used once or twice, sit in a garage for 10 years filling up space and deteriorating, and then thrown away. Where is the value? Who gains from this system?

Companies do. Big companies that pay lots of money to bombard you every day with message after message about how buying their product will make you happy. But will it? In our hearts we all know that buying things will not make us happy, but at the same time we have been trained to do it. How many of you get upset and go out and buy stuff to make yourself feel better? I know I do. I guess the advertising companies are really doing their job well.

Here are iRent2u, we don’t want you to stop buying things. We are just creating a system where you can spend your money on things you really want, instead of wasting it buying 100 lawnmowers. Use your money for vacations with your family and friends, or just work less and spend more time at home. Use your money to buy that new shirt, or a new car, instead of buying an extra truck you use twice a year that sits in your driveway rusting.

Together We Have More

Here in America we are individualists. We love our freedom, and we have been graced with the liberty and opportunity to do as we please. This is a great thing, and has given us the opportunity to achieve incredible feats. Is it possible though that we have taken this liberty too far? We are the largest polluters in the world. We consume more than most other countries put together, and throw away things that have hardly been used.

Our wealth and abundance make it easy to waste, but we are the people who ultimately lose in this cycle. By working together in such little ways as sharing our lawnmower we start to change our world. With iRent2u.com it has never been easier to get more from what you already have. Start sharing today, and together we will build a better tomorrow.

iRent2u.com - Launching this September.