I’m seeing a lot more hybrids and other fuel-efficient cars on the roads these days, as drivers battle the rising fuel costs. Here’s an innovative auto that promises 41-MPG on the highway: the “smart fortwo.” (The gas tank of the smart fortwo is 8.7 gallons!)

The inventors of the fortwo started sketching out this unique care in the early 1990’s with a Joint Venture between Mercedes-Benz and Swatch, the makers of Swatch watches known for their wide array of colorful designs. Nicolas Hayek, the inventor of the Swatch watch brought his ideas for an “ultra-urban” car to Mercedes-Benz, and Mercedes took on this engineering challenge with the outcome of one of the most innovative cars ever introduced.

Ahh, but is it safe? Mercedes says it is. The tridion safety cell was it’s answer for a small car that can meet high safety standards. The tridion safety cell is a “hard shell” that surrounds the smart fortwo’s occupants with an energy displacing system of longitudinal and transverse structural members.

The auto is made of energy efficient and recyclable materials. For example, only water-soluble paints are used for the smart’s three basic colors – black, white and yellow. Painting the tridion safety cell is done by the powder-coating process. This removes the need for solvents. The body panels with molded-in color are fully recyclable. Environmental management is a high priority in Hambach, France, where the car is made.

The Greenpeace study, titled “Playing Dirty,” reveals that the next-generation game consoles like Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 Elite and Microsoft Xbox 360 have all tested positive for hazardous chemicals. For example, high levels of bromine were found in the components of all three, with the highest by weight levels in the PS3 and the Wii. But the tests also showed that each of the manufacturers avoided or reduced the use of individual hazardous substances in certain materials within their consoles.

The good news is that greener consoles are possible, according to the report. My feeling is that a typical video game consumer is not likely to care that much about the toxins in landfills, but the companies making them will definitely want to make strides to rid their products of them, for the greater good.

The days of loose coupon clippings may be coming to an end, as the coupons we used to clip and carry are just about to go mobile. McDonald, Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, Kimberly-Clark, Clorox and Del Monte and others are all posed to send their customers mobile coupons, either via text messages (with their permission), directing the user to the company’s mobile coupon site or promoting the product through barcode technology where retailers scan the barcodes right from your cell phone as you stand in the checkout line!

This one-to-one marketing opportunity is huge–where messages are customized and localized towards individual’s tastes and behaviors. Today there are more than 230 million mobile phone users in the US; and an estimated three billion coupons will be issued to mobile phone users by 2011, amounting to sales of almost $87 billion.

How do consumers feel about coupons via cell phone? Three-quarters of consumers felt that a coupon would be the most effective incentive to get them to respond to a mobile marketing message and that half would use mobile coupons for a discount at a local store, according to a survey by ABI Research. Similar studies by Jupiter Research show that 30 percent of consumers would like to receive mobile coupons.

A start-up called Cellfire provides advertisers/marketers with the ability to promote special discounts or savings of their goods/services via mobile coupons (opted-in SMS). Some of the advertisers include Domino’s Pizza, Supercuts, EMI Music, LA Times and Hardees’ among others. McDonald recently conducted a regional test of mobile coupons where consumers could receive one of the chain’s new iced coffees for free. Subway is using mobile coupon to drive retail traffic with last-minute special offers. To date, more than 10,000 retail stores nationwide are said to redeem Cellfire mobile coupons.

The Kroger grocery store has entered into a partnership with consumer-packaged food companies like P&G, General Mills and Kimberly-Clark to offer mobile coupons at the end of the second quarter using Cellfire services. The coupons offered will be mobile-exclusive and will be valid for specific store locations.

Other mobile coupon providers include GoMobo, SnapTell and Ugotitfirst. With mobile phones being such personal devices, receiving opt-in savings messages from relevant businesses would be highly appealing.

Best of all in my opinion is that there’s definitely a “Green” advantage to mobile coupons in the potential to save billions of dollars in paper and printing costs!

The current food crisis is inspiring forward-thinking scientists to develop solutions for farmers in developing nations. Here is just one example I read about this morning: an 82-year-old scientist who was once dubbed the father of India’s Green Revolution is inspiring a perpetual revolution.

Forty years ago, Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies by developing a hybrid wheat seed that allowed Indian farmers to dramatically increase yields. Now he is researching new ways to put farmers on the right road to unending growth.

In the twenty-first century’s “Evergreen Revolution”, as he calls it, he predicts conservation farming and green technology will bring about sustainable change that could allow India to become an even bigger supplier of food to the world.

That would be welcome news for the millions of impoverished people and food-importing nations who are struggling to cope with the surge in basic crop prices over the last year, caused in part by protectionist trade bans by some exporters, including India.

I completely agree with his statement that, “in every crisis is an opportunity and this time it will lead to an evergreen revolution,” and I look forward to reporting more about innovative ideas that will feed millions in this time of need.

A special thanks to our new team member at Innovationedge, Dave Labno, for sharing his thoughts today on the Fortune Brainstorm Green 2008 Conference that occurred last week in Pasadena, California —Cheryl

Fortune Brainstorm Green 2008 Conference
By Dave Labno, Guest blogger

Four hundred leading thinkers and doers in the world of business, science, government and NGOs joined together April 21-22 to showcase remarkable changes in world over the last few years.

Who would have imagined a successful partnership between Greenpeace and McDonalds? Dozens of similar partnerships and discussions took place. Disagreements still exist but a general sense of urgency and collaboration has emerged between previously distant groups.

Several leading CEO’s and environmental leaders told me this would not have happened even 3 years ago. A sea change has taken place and an exciting era of innovation and entrepreneurship in the world has begun.

There were too many great innovations to list but here is a sample:

According to P&G, heating water to wash cloths accounts for 3% of the US residential energy use and using laundry detergent that that does a great job in cold could alone reduce our countries carbon Emissions by a stunning 1%.

Michael Dell shared how remote web assistance cuts greenhouse emissions by 90%, reduces costs and improves customer satisfaction as you don’t have to send your computer away or wait for days to have an outside technician visit your home or office.

He also unveiled a desktop computer smaller than a laptop, made of 90% recycled materials and uses 30% less power. Even the case is recyclable – you’ll have your choice of recycled wood exteriors when the product is released at the end of 2008.

Shai Aggasi has a simple goal – make Israeli oil free by 2015. This will be achieved primarily through business model innovation. The former executive at SAP has billions in investment from Renault/Nissan, the Israeli Government and private investors. Over a half million electrical outlets will be placed at shopping mall, office, and on street parking locations around Israel. Outlets will be connected with GPS so your vehicle will know where to “fill” when you aren’t driving. The most intriguing part is that you’ll have the option of free or low cost cars. The cars will work more like your cell phone – you pay for the recharges, not the car itself and you can pre pay for recharges, have a set plan per month or unlimited minute with multiple year contracts.

The message is clear, government regulation and the environment itself will require us to change how we live but not at the expense of the bottom line. This is one of the most exciting times for innovation in history.

“Green is he new black!” That’s a slogan on a T-shirt that stores like Wal-Mart are selling, and I’ve seen quite a few of them around today. Green has indeed become quite a fashion statement that transcends Earth Day.

Earth Day has come a long way since it first launched 39 years ago, and today across the United States, schools, businesses and government agencies are finding new ways to draw attention to caring for our planet. From where I stand, environmental issues are bigger news today than ever before. Environmental sustainability is a mega-trend that is inspiring innovative new products.

What is sustainability? Simply put, it’s how we meet our resource needs (water, food and energy), without compromising our ability to supply for future generations. Sustainability is how we impact the environment, our economy and our society. Innovative companies embrace sustainable “Green” policies with business strategies that are three-fold: Environmental, Economic and Social impact.

If you are truly innovative in your corporate sustainability efforts, you should be embracing new ways to decrease your environmental footprint, improve your financial bottom line and improve your interaction with your employees, your community and your world.

Disposable diapers have become a roughly $5.7 billion business, but cloth diapering is making a comeback. Here is an interesting diaper product that is not only fashionable, but environmentally friendly. They’re called gDiapers, and consist of a washable, cotton outer pant and a plastic free flushable refill. They are made of breathable material just like sports clothing, and that is what keeps the skin from getting diaper rash.

The makers encourage parents to toss flushable refills because they’re plastic-free, or garden compost the wet ones. They’ll break down in 50-150 days. Check out gDiapers here!.

Today’s new cloth diapers are different from the ones that I struggled with years ago. While approximately half of cloth users still rely on fold-and-pin diapers provided by laundry services, new designs with cutesy names like Fuzzi Bunz, bumGenius, Kissaluvs and Happy Heinys have become enormously popular with parents who want to do the right thing for the environment.

Velcro, buttons and snaps have replaced pins, and the diapers are fitted with elastic around the openings to hold tight around flailing legs. In place of old-fashioned rubber panties, the new cloths use water-resistant covers made of merino wool, nylon or polyurethane laminate.

It will be interesting to see how the disposable diaper industry responds to these next generation diapers!

I’ve had a great time meeting with packaging industry leaders this week at the 2008 Packaging Strategies Summit in Bonneventure, Florida, where I was one of the featured speakers. With so many innovative developments in packaging design, I am fascinated by how these leaders are continually coming up with great new ideas that deliver differentiation and disrupt the store aisle!

One of the challenges I often hear about is how to maintain this growth while meeting the needs of what I call the Innovation Ecosystem (which I tell my clients is a top-priority!). Today I shared with conference attendees the main elements they must focus on as they design their own packaging innovation ecosystem. Environmental, economic and social considerations are the three main forces involved in sustainable innovation.

Of course, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all ecosystem, so each company must create its own based on its unique offerings and capabilities. To build an innovation ecosystem, you need to have an open-ended sustainable outcome by looking across the design, delivery of product, how it is used and how it is disposed of. These ecosystems involve complex relationships between many players: vendors, customers, regulators, influencers, shoppers, decision makers, management, innovators, brokers, competitors and others, where simple linear chains of events are not applicable.

The business objectives should focus on how to decrease the environmental footprint, improve the financial bottom line and operate the organization ethically to improve your relationships with employees and the communities where they live and work.

We also talked about the need for developing partnerships and alliances that complete their ecosystem and deliver sustainable, innovation-driven growth. Bottom line: It’s important to choose the right partners who have the eco-friendly designs and the disposability that you don’t have within your own brick and mortar walls.

Japanese automaker Nissan is building a new green headquarters in the U.S.,  moving from its Nashville high-rise to a new site about 20 miles away. The 50-acre campus is a restored wetland, and the $100 million project includes a 10-story, S-shaped building opening in July for 1,500 employees.

Nissan’s own facilities engineers developed the headquarters with features aimed at showing a concern for the environment beyond stretching miles per gallon and cutting exhaust emissions.A “light harvesting system” automatically dims or turns off interior lights in the 460,000 square feet of offices. Sun shades outside act as reflective visors with computer-designed blades that deflect sunlight and reduce glare and heat in the Southern summer.

Air conditioning and heat are controlled through outlets at each work station, so Nissan will be heating and cooling people rather than space. Nissan engineers say the headquarters should consume about 35 percent less energy than a traditionally-designed building.

Outside there is an abundance of green surrounding the building as Nissan works to restore a 2 1/2-acre wetland. Tens of thousands of native Tennessee plants, including iris, button bush and rushes, are already growing there.

In designing this new green space, Nissan sets a great example of its commitment to the environment both on and off the road!

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Imagine a new and revolutionary technology that will produce reliable low-cost electricity from the floors of the oceans!

Now company in the U.K. has designed the prototype for the world’s first deep-sea tidal-energy farm. The underwater tidal farm will be built off the Welsh coast starting this year to provide electricity for 5,000 homes.

Click on the picture  or right here to see a cool Web video about how this sea farm works.
Tidal energy has the potential to provide a reliable source of green energy because it is predictable and guaranteed, unlike wind turbines, which are dependent on the weather.

Construction is due to start this summer and the proposed tidal energy turbines, described as “a wind farm under the sea,” should be operational by 2010. Eight underwater turbines will be installed on the sea bottom off St David’s peninsula in Pembrokeshire, South Wales. The project off the Welsh coast is being developed in partnership between the power company E.ON and Lunar Energy and is one of several tidal energy projects being considered in British waters.

The ebb and flow of tidal waters will provide the force to turn the blades of the turbines. It can generate electricity without the huge emissions of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. British energy companies are confident that the impact on wildlife will be minimal. The turbines revolve slowly enough for fish and other creatures to avoid being damaged by the blades.

Studies have suggested that Britain’s coastline offers enough tidal energy to supply at least 5 percent of Britain’s total electricity consumption. In U.S. dollars that translates to nearly a billion dollars a year!