Subscribe » Issue #39, May-Jun 2012 Mag Cover
Idealog—in the ideas business

Cover of Idealog #20

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It’s definitely authentic Kiwi: Idealog #20, on sale now at good stores everywhere

Interact


8 Editorial

The participation economy

10 Contributors

Steven Shaw, Tony Nyberg and John Bishop

12 Revisited

14 Agenda

Now


17 Ace of Base

Jasmin Ziedan thought her employer should do things differently—so she bought the company

18 Cleaning up a storm

What’s a cleaner ocean worth? Stormwater 360 is finding out

20 Get festive

Art, dance, theatre, comedy and debauchery—book now

22 Short cuts

Forty-two dreams, described in 42 seconds

24 Roll up

If you spend your day in a wheelchair, it better look cool

26 The secret of our successes

Think you’re talented? Creative? Dare we say it: outstanding? Good for you—but if Malcolm Gladwell is right, that’ll only get you so far. He’s looked at the traits of successful people and found what they have in common: hard work and happy circumstance. So how do the merely talented get ahead?

EcoInnovator


35 Subsidise this

Every industry clamours for subsidies. Most should be ignored. Why should the alternative energy industry be any different?

36 News

The latest developments in sustainable technology, design, science, entrepreneurship and marketing, in New Zealand and around the world

42 Recession proof it

There’s never been a better time to invest in green building

43 100% pure

Could New Zealand generate all its electricity from renewable sources within 20 years? An expert says yes

44 Beyond the numbers

Too many executives miss the bigger opportunity because they can't get behind the numbers

44 Designing a revival

This current recession proves that business-as-usual has failed

45 Fix our sick house

A million of our 1.6 million homes are inefficient, cold and uncomfortable. Let's fix them

46 Birth of Sustainability 2.0

Our future should be cast as exciting and bountiful instead of dull and limited. It’s about innovation, growth and solutions, not cutbacks and reductions

47 Systems virtue

It’s one thing to change your light bulbs. But how do you change an entire system?

48 Stop the rot

The Kiwi housing stock is a shambles: damp, drafty and usually facing south. Andy Kenworthy examines what it would take to jump-start a green housing revolution

56 Wood works

Can biofuels survive the perfect storm of PR disasters, global recession and a government sceptical about sustainability? Yes—if we want it to. Vincent Heeringa discovers the future of biofuels still glimmers—especially for wood

62 Biomass man

A year ago, Scion chief executive Tom Richardson announced a report estimating the entire New Zealand transport fleet could be powered by biofuel derived from our forests. Is he still so optimistic?

Features


68 Kiwi or kitsch?

New Zealand pitches itself as a tourism hotspot—the world’s adventure playground, pure, clean and green. But when it comes time for our guests to leave, what do they have to remember us? By Amanda Cropp

74 Altered minds

For Alt Group, an Auckland design firm that scooped 55 design awards internationally in 2008, good brand design is more than just a Helvetica love-in. Steven Shaw gets with the Alt approach

80 Power trip

It’s a decade since Kiwis could pick their power provider—and yet reading your power bill is an exercise in frustration. What if you could buy your power from anybody—the cheapest, the greenest, or the most socially involved—and never receive a ‘bill shock’ again? That’s the promise of a new Kiwi startup—and it will even let you launch your own power company. meets the bright sparks behind Powershop

86 Close to home

Cousins Celia and Caro Allison have a lot in common. A cartoonist and a fashion design respectively, they both trained at Wellington Polytechnic, live and work in Lyttelton, drive silver Toyota Caribs and are obsessive recyclers. But most of all, finds Amanda Cropp, they’re both deeply committed to keeping their products New Zealand-made

Workshop


103 Earthly ideas

Saving the planet, ten technologies at a time

103 Master of the (self) image

George Lois recounts his genius

104 Hail the Twitterer-in-Chief

Learning from the methods that unlocked the White House

104 Forward evolution

Evolutionary biologists don’t spend all their time looking backwards. At the Allan Wilson Centre, Kiwi scientists are predicting the future

107 Same as it ever was

Times are tough. So what’s new?

108 Work with Gen C

Surely there’s never been a generation quite so headstrong, self-centred, clever and so demanding?

111 After Frodo

Idealog Metrics Our movie industry has shaded Australia’s—but can we fund it?

112 Nurture, not nature

Businesses are made, not born

Plus


65 IdealGear

Idealog’s list of design-led delights

92 Creative showcase

Web business | Only a few businesses have really explored the potential of web 2.0 technologies. But it’s easy to get started