The other day I got an email from a friend, Gregory, he sent me a link to the following popular video site (Daily Motion) that showed an excerpt from a very famous French movie called “Les Bronzées font du ski” (The Bronzées go skiing). In this short sequence, for those that speak French, you can understand why Gregory thought “that this is where the Laneo idea came from”!! Enjoy.
This world-renowned & unique Sailing race has done quite a bit over the years in terms of both reducing the race’s eco footprint and encouraging those involved to take part in eco initiatives surrounding the event. This year’s race went even further with each navigator signing an official charter, initiating a Forest replanting program in Bahia that will offset the CO2 emissions and launch the “More for Bahia – Mission” (Helping respect sustainable development criteria in coffee farms & sending two students on a mission to Brazilian coffee farms).
Those of us that have sailed know that the values of sailing go far beyond the lakes, bays and oceans. Popular professional events such as the Transat Jacques Vabre show that every sport is starting to take part in this global challenge!
I get a lot of emails from Laneo members who ask why everything on our blog is in English. Although Mandarin is the largest spoken language (it is spoken by 873 million people around the world), English is the most readily spoken by Laneo members and readers. And since it is our mission to share “our opinion” with the largest number of people possible – English seemed like a logical choice – especially since it is impossible for me to write every blog post in a number of languages.
And though the Laneo blog may be written in English, it covers a large range of news and events from around the world. For example, I recently ran across a great magazine this week called SALAMANDER. I’m sure our French members and readers around the world will recognize and appreciate the choice.
SALAMANDER was founded in 1983 by Julien Perrot, (it is based in Neuchatel, Switzerland) and has grown into a 17 person company that produces a bi-monthly magazine (for adults and children), CD’s, a very rich website, a boutique and even a yearly festival.
This unique brand strives to cultivate the SALAMANDER spirit. Its mission is to open the hearts of a very large audience to the innumerable gifts that nature offers us, and to increase knowledge and respect of the beauty surrounding us. Without advertisements, SALAMANDER is almost entirely financed by reader subscriptions. In fact, you cannot purchase the magazine in kiosks – specifically to avoid the paper waste associated with unsold goods.
SALAMANDER is a great example of how simple yet thought-provoking journalism can be at changing our outlook on nature.
The Laneo blog, regardless of the language it is written in, strives to achieve that same balance. And it is my sincerest hope that all Laneo members, across the world, in all the languages – are able to share and partake in what we are doing.
As we all know, for quite a while now, it was the “offer” that created the “demand”. Things have considerably changed in recent years and we’re now seeing those that are in charge of products and services having to invent new offers, more and more unexpected if possible; in order to surprise and seduce consumers. How can a company achieve this? Sure there are the classical tools in standard marketing like market research, comparative marketing or even tactical pricing but today the key is to become so different – that there is no longer a “comparison”. To do that takes a savvy dosage of creativity, intuition and emotion.
Brands are no longer just a range of products but increasingly “lifestyles”. This permits companies to use a growing number of tactics without being limited by the specificity of their products or their history. The only rule is to respect the values that have attributed to their brand. Another reason is that they no longer have to target “segments” but “lifestyles” that express themselves with “desires” that are closely related to tribal rites and signals. These criteria, you will agree, are very far from the standard assortment of; revenue, sex, marital status, housing, number of children, education etc…, that are used so often to describe our consumer habits. The consequence is that there are no longer “borders” and everything can become competition as long as it satisfies “desire”.
You’re going to see a lot of this happening shortly in the Sports industry, much like you might have seen (without knowing) in other industries. Take for example STARBUCKS selling CD’s and Books. They don’t want to become a library or a book store. They simply wanted to add to the reasons we want to get our drink from there. The same goes for LAND ROVER and HARLEY DAVIDSON with their “owner clubs & chapters” full of events and adventures that create “experiences” outside and around the purchase itself.
What I’m most happy about with this new trend is that Laneo fits right in. After all, if companies are increasingly more interested in our lifestyles, then my hope is that they will ultimately contribute to preserving them.
Ever wonder where all those words like “carbon footprint” or “carbon neutral” came from? As I had breakfast this morning, I asked myself; are we going to invent even more words as the whole world starts “talking about”, the planet?!
So we all know about “Green”, “Eco” and “Planet” but new ones like “Habitat”, “Species”, and “Ecosystem” are being used more and more by the media, even though at the origin they designed to describe the distribution and abundance of organisms, their relationships with each other, and how they influence and are influenced by their environment.
It isn’t “easy being green” today because installing energy-efficient light bulbs and showerheads in your home is no longer enough. You have to describe it in words. “Offsetting”, is that what you’re doing? This “new thing” (a compensating equivalent) has also become increasingly trendy recently (note: Laneo does not support these initiatives), and there are a number of sites around the world that have sprung up to answer demand, but where did that word come from? I ran across a blog post at The Guardian by Alison Benjamin on “Green Language” that’s worth a read as she develops this topic even further.
I think it’s interesting to see how we as a society “label” most everything we do. What I believe is most important to increase global awareness and action for our planet is that each culture and language maintain their own unique way of explaining their acts and beliefs.
Maybe one day that will come to be known as – “ECO-TRADITION”.
The PICNIC’07 conference is Europe’s most dynamic event devoted to creativity and innovation in the media, technology and entertainment industries. Designed for creatives, entrepreneurs, innovation and technology experts, media professionals, and business people, the conference showcases the latest innovative and creative trends relevant to the media and entertainment industries.
PICNIC is not only a conference, it’s a downright festival. Aimed at people who care about the future and want to play a role in shaping it – the PICNIC offers a week of fresh creative & innovative ideas. One of the world’s leading events where creative minds from the world of media, entertainment, science and the arts convene in Amsterdam from Monday 24th September to Saturday 29th September 2007.
To encourage and aid the invention of new green products and services, the Dutch Postcode Lottery and PICNIC presented this year the PICNIC Green Challenge – the challenge to come up with a greenhouse-gas-reducing product or service. The entrant with the best idea will win €500,000, expert coaching, and a starting list of customers, so he or she can bring the invention to the marketplace within two years.
LANEO will be present at this event for only one day, (other priorities are taking me back to Paris) but I really hope to see more and more of these Tech & Media Conferences start giving back to the environment. It’s events like these that draw innovative and entrepreneurial people from all over the world and when joining forces for the planet, we can really make a difference!
A friend of mine sent me a link today to NOE, which is a new participative website to collect ideas for the “Grenelle of the Environment” here in France.
We were really proud to see that Laneo has been cited as being one of the “Top Initiatives” in this collective effort.
Alain Juppe, former Minister of Ecology and Sustainable Development announced the “Grenelle” earlier this year to serve as a broad consultation on environmental issues. Six workgroups are currently underway and any French citizen can contribute to the debate, results are expected this fall. The name “Grenelle” is an expression that refers to the famous “Grenelle Agreements of of May 1968”, a multi-party debate that brought together representatives from the government, trade associations and other ONG’s on the subject legislating and giving an opinion.
One of my favorite moments at the EUROBIKE show came when I ran into the LIKE A BIKE company. This little gem of a business has everything that makes for great and stimulating story. Children + Natural Products + Education + Craftsmanship + Sports + History = one heck of a model company. LIKE A BIKE makes a range of wooden bikes WITHOUT PEDALS for very young children and some fun accessories to make it even safer and more enjoyable. It all started 10 years ago when a German couple witnessed, as all parents do, their son having a terrible time mastering the art of riding a bicycle. Being creative and a skilled handyman, founder Rolf Merten went into his garage and proceeded to remove the training wheels, the pedals and even chopped a bit of the seat stem off in order to lower it. What happened a few minutes later changed his son’s life and eventually his own.
Since then LIKE A BIKE has continued to design new and better versions of his invention, using wood and other natural materials to make the bikers safer to use, easier to repair and easily accessible even to toddlers.
As I stood their talking with Delphine Mordenti, who distributes these bikes throughout Europe, I witnessed countless little kids whipping around on their “Mountain” models, deftly avoiding all the “big people” who were mesmerized by all the bikes on display and who wouldn’t have seen them anyway. What surprised me the most was how very small children, some who barley walked well, “rode” their bikes, by pushing themselves around with their two legs, like Venetian Gondola drivers with their canes. It also struck me that these children were highly independent and at the same time, very responsible, since they held their “presence” (in space & time) in their own hands.
The bikes themselves are of exceptionally quality (the wood is beautiful) and come in a variety of sizes and colors and are surprisingly transportable (with a simple Allen Key, anyone can pack it up in under 2 minutes). LIKE A BIKE is an ingenious product that teaches children the fun of living an active lifestyle, the importance of valuing time, and most importantly the connection that nature provides in terms of resources and settings.
Fall, my favorite time of year, is almost upon us. This beautiful season is the same in any language and it happens in almost every place across the Planet. The bright hues of red, orange and yellow appear almost overnight and nature’s internal clock signals a gradual slow-down.
What’s funny is that we also enjoy our favorite outdoor activities – differently come autumn. Our friends and training partners slow down after the summer full of exploits, and a more causal enjoyment becomes the number one objective. The very way we experience nature changes drastically too. The air and water temperature cools which change the way we feel and breathe. The fact that we have to wear different “layers” changes our contact with the outdoor elements. And even our energy levels change requiring different amounts of food, water and sleep.
And of course the environment changes around us too. Water currents change, as do wave patterns. Leaves fall off the trees and decorate our favorite trails. Rain makes an occasional and unexpected appearance, and even our favorite animal friends suddenly change coats, migrate to warmer climates, or disappear all together to hibernate through the winter. All of this makes for a tantalizing piece of art that only nature could create.
So in the upcoming months, take a moment to enjoy the changes happening around you on your regular training routes or weekend trips. And remember to slow down and celebrate this special time of year with an “après” Cappuccino and Hot Wine with your friends.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of hearing all these catastrophic statistics and data on climate change and tragic images of wildlife and landscape. Sure we need to raise awareness, but intimidating people with apocalyptic scenarios isn’t going to get us anywhere. In my opinion, the focus on dramatizing environmental issues is counter productive. There is a moment when all of it becomes “too much”. People lose track, get confused, don’t know what to do, and most of all – give up – because it seems too big to solve with simple answers. In reality however, simple changes and tiny commitments are all that is needed to make a huge difference.
The recent rise in public eco-consciousness is due to the massive media coverage of literally millions of initiatives around the world. Some fueled by capitalistic opportunism, others purely by civic responsibility. Whatever the root cause, what’s at stake is not market share or consumer trends – it’s the environment. Hype is for shopping, not for social issues. But with this huge onslaught of information, just picking through the available news is a job on its own. You practically have to be a PhD expert to understand it all and be able to differentiate fact from myth.
At Laneo, we steer clear of all the hype and clutter. By talking about what’s new, who’s doing what, where the initiatives are going, and how you can participate if you wish – Laneo offers you a positive approach to make your own choices and your own level of impact.
What interests us is the great outdoors. Those picture perfect swells, the mist rising off the lakes, the silence of country trails and the majesty of century old boulders. Getting everyone outside to experience this, whether they’re beginners or experts (and at whatever dose they choose), that is our “hands-on training” of what’s right and what’s wrong for our planet.
Outdoors should be fun and it should enlighten adults as it does children. It should never ever become a terrain for hopelessness, regret or restraint. So go out there and play. Enjoy the spirit of life and nature. Because only when you get out there and experience it for yourself, will you understand what you yourself can do to protect your planet.
I just came back from an hour long trail run and while I was out there, I ran into a friend who during our conversation asked me “Andrew, why did you choose to make joining Laneo a Free membership?”
So I came home and looked up the dictionary definition of “free” and here’s what I found:
a) “not subject to or constrained by engagements and obligations”
b) “using or expending something without restraint”
c) “so as to become available for a particular purpose”
When I decided to make Laneo memberships free, there were two opposite perspectives that I was battling. In today’s capitalist society, anything that is free is considered to be “bad” or “poor quality” or not really worth pursuing. Yet “why” should helping clean up our outdoors cost those who want to do it. There’s a lot of debate today on the subject of free in “business models”, “culture price” and “community expenses”. Some even argue that “price” is the only barrier to wastefulness, but I think it’s a lot simpler than everyone’s making it out to be.
Remember when you were a child and everything seemed so accessible? You went outside and you could basically go anywhere and do anything, for nothing. You could climb a tree, jump in a lake or run through a cornfield. Money was not an issue. It’s only when you grew up and society caught up with you that things started to cost money.
Today as adults, especially in big corporations, we turn everything into money. Products, services, people’s time and expertise, production, overhead, – it all has money attached to it. But things like family, friends, quality of your life, quality of your environment – no one can assign a monetary value to those things. They are beyond any price anyone could assign to them.
I made Laneo memberships free, so that the model could “free up” restrictions and fuel opportunities because I believe our environment is beyond price. If we destroy it, no amount of money we collect and leave to our kids, will ever enable them restore it.
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