6 posts tagged “ecology”

[Cross-posted from Lucire] Last year, we said the Fiat 500 would be the Car to Be Seen in—and this year, more people are getting on board the popular retro-styled subcompact car.
   After celebrating Barbie’s 50th anniversary with a pink 500 last week, Fiat has announced that British top model Jodie Kidd was the first Briton to take part in the company’s Eco test drive, highlighting the benefits of environmentally friendly motoring. (Continued at the Lucire website.)

[Cross-posted from Lucire] By Lucire’s editor-at-large and Planet Green host Summer Rayne Oakes, Style, Naturally is an eco-conscious guide to fashion and beauty, with responsible brands and tips for living sustainably. It’s the most comprehensive and accessible book on the topic—we had a sneak preview a few months ago. Out now; for more information, surf to Summer Rayne’s site at www.summerrayneoakes.com. Retail in the US is US$24·95—you can buy now via Amazon.com for a lower price of $18·96.

General Motors’ latest video, on its new Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1 and the Cadillac CTS-V, emphasizes the new cars’ green credentials. I’m not convinced. There’s a greater commentary over at Lucire, but telling me that a supercar is greener than its competition is like saying a small blade is less harmful than a large one during a knife attack. The ’Vette and its rivals are unlikely to ever see 20 mpg, while the video is a bit light on just why the Caddy is green, with 550 bhp and 550 lb ft.
   They look fabulous on the outside, as many American cars do, but marketing them as green is really optimistic.

Modify home page

A nice site came across my virtual desk today: Modify, an eco-chic boutique specializing in higher-end fashion, accessories, home items and beauty products. I don’t know the folks behind it, but I am pretty impressed with the home page design. We linked it from the Lucire Shopping Guide—the online one—today.
   Shows there’s plenty of growing credibility to covering eco-fashion, something we pioneered among mainstream fashion titles earlier this century.

[Cross-posted] I think it’s way cool when another magazine calls one of your own one of its 20 most influential trend-setters under 40. And this is out of a global sample of people. Congratulations, Summer Rayne, for making it into Amica’s list! It’s much deserved—and yet another example of how she and Lucire have been ahead of the curve.

[Cross-posted] Honda’s Takeo Fukui has said that he will put the world’s first hydrogen fuel-cell car on the market by next year, with a sticker price of around £50,000. The car emits water vapour as its “exhaust”.
   This is fabulous thinking: rather than hold the technology back, as all the other automakers are doing, Honda is going full steam ahead and pioneering.
   In one move, it’s overcome any slowdown in the Japanese car market and made an impact in an eco-conscious world.
   And £50,000 isn’t a lot to pay for a large sedan that’s brimming with technological advancements.
   Asked how the new Honda FCX might overcome the absence of hydrogen filling stations, Mr Fukui gave a great answer that shows the company has really considered its car in a historical context: ‘When the car was invented, countries weren’t full of petrol stations. When the demand is there it will happen.’
   It makes Red China’s copying of western automotive models seem outmoded and silly, considering that it had nearly a carte blanche with which to play in the 1980s and 1990s. That could have meant jumping ahead of the rest of the world without having the worries of old plant costs to contend with.
   It also shows that brands will only get you so far: major leaps ahead like this, without reference to what the establishment might think, can spell success when it taps in to the Zeitgeist. And Honda has detected that the world in the late-2000s is still going to be obsessed with global warming and climate change. It has detected that there is a rebellion against brands that do not help the planet. And it might have also considered that there will be a rationalization in the brands we deal with, so why not get ahead now?