As we've been talking to friends, colleagues and potential investors over the last few weeks, a few people have been asking me "ok but what's this REALLY all about?" In response, I think seeing the mockup is always a great way to understand a business. So, here's an extract from our investors' Powerpoint, to give you some idea. Design will be an important element - the store is intended to look cool - as will in-store campaigns on eco-issues. Note the two big video screens in the front, which will be an important part of these campaigns, engaging with customers, to attract them into the store, and explaining products.
While most people's eyes are focused on Copenhagen, the world's businesspeople will quite possibly be paying more attention to this summit that's going on in Washington...
This underlines that what bgreen is aiming to do is just part of a global industry which is about to be very big indeed.
Debate on the whether is over, it's time to think about the how.
Less than a week to go to Copenhagen: to what might, when we look back in twenty or thirty years, turn out to have been the most important inflection point of our lifetimes between two possible futures: that of truly putting us on the road to resolving climate change, or not. In the UK, it is also quite likely to be the last important action of the Labour administration which started in 1997, and the country therefore has a short window of opportunity in which to act (frankly, it's incredibly unlikely, despite Cameron's protestations to the contrary, that a Tory administration would act in this area aggressively).
Our political systems, however, so adept in acting in the event of immediate threats such as military attack, seem hopelessly inadequate to act in the event of a slow-moving crisis. In the event of failure, even such measured and sensible people as Al Gore are advocating that "civil disobedience has its role to play" and, despite myself, he may just have a point.
I should also add that while the blog's been a bit quiet, we did our first investor pitch. The investor is a big name Business Angel who has founded one of the most popular websites in Spain, which is a market leader at the European level. He really liked the idea, and we're working on some changes he suggested to the business plan. We'll keep you updated...
Well I've just seen 36 clicks in 3 hours for our "last chance to see" of our video on The Good Entrepreneur, as I assume they'll take it down soon after the grand finale tonight. So thank you all for your support, it'll take us a bit longer given that we didn't win the competition, but we're still very much going and talking to investors. We're also scouring the national and international markets for any grants we might get (also helps us get equity investment as well, of course).
Anyway, for those of you who haven't seen our 1-minute Good Entrepreneur video (you must have been living on the moon for all my posts to have missed you), here's the link.
Yes, those spots on my face are real (thanks Mark for pointing that out).
Ok, I know, I know. A blog is a discipline that you have to do regularly. But it's been a mad month. Now, here's a thought from Trendwatching, an excellent site for predicting what's going to be big, and guess what they said about sustainability in their top 10 issues for 2010? That we've got to make it easy for people to be green. At the moment it's all too complicated and that's turning off consumers.
Now I don't want to make a big deal of it, but that's what we've been saying for the last two years. In fact, it's the basis of our business model. Anyway check out the article for yourself here.
Went last night to see The Age Of Stupid, actually a very well-made and powerful film. Biggest simultaneous screening of any film ever, etc. etc. Very impressive what they've done with practically no money, strong beliefs and good organisation - chapeau.
It's probably an important film, as was An Inconvenient Truth, and it will probably stir people to action to do something in advance of the Copenhagen summit - good. In fact, 90% of what it says is pretty much correct, it's just a shame it can't resist the temptation, Michael Moore-style, to sound off about whatever other perceived injustices (like the war in Iraq) are against Franny Armstrong's personal beliefs.
If one part particularly rang true for me, it was the comment by an environmental scientist that humans had never before had to deal with a slow-moving iceberg of a problem like climate change, we were evolutionarily equipped to deal with wild animals, warring tribes, etc. - immediate threats. We had no experience of dealing with something like this. The unspoken corrollary is that we tend to vacillate, panic and achieve very little, as we can show over the last 10 years or so.
Anyway, it certainly shows that the issue of Climate Change is by no means far from people's minds, indeed if anything it's resurging. Good - and not just for Barcelona Green.
bgreen is a project for a chain of retail stores selling products which fight climate change. It's currently in funding phase and in late 2009 won an honourable mention in The Good Entrepreneur, a Europe-wide competition run by TV network CNBC. This is our blog, full of random thoughts about the company, ethical business and climate change.
