Welcome to our Good Ideas Blog.
Here we gather examples of products, tools and services that we love and that have been created following our own ethos: they don’t nag people to “do good”, but instead are all things people simply use and like because they are fun, cool, money saving or useful.
And yet in using these things, people are incidentally “doing good” and their actions are having positive effect on a major social or environmental issue.
Ideas posted regularly so keep coming back for fresh inspiration…..
December 17, 2013, No Comments yet. Add yours.
Good is: Easy, Saves energy, Saves money, social, and Useful.
Issues: Community, Disability, Environmental, Food Waste, and Inter-personal Contact.
Casserole Club (http://www.casseroleclub.com/) is a community-led network where members who cook a little extra are matched up with other local users to share it with, with a particular focus on those who find it a little extra difficult to cook.
The tool provides an opportunity to get to know local people, encourages people to cook fresh, healthy meals, gives them a reason to try out new recipes and could reduce food waste. It also makes it easier to help members of the community that are less able. We like the practical, facilitate approach it takes, and the fact that it builds local social capital whilst tackling environmental issues, but we wonder how you could make the social aims more implicit and whether this would make it appeal to an even wider audience.
Casserole club is currently running in Reigate and Banstead, Tower Hamlets and Barnet and we hope to see it grow in the future.
September 10, 2013, 1 Comment. See and add yours.
Good is: Easy, Saves money, and social.
Issues: CO2 Emissions, Community, Environmental, and Inter-personal Contact.
Have you ever made one of those journeys that take forever, where there’s nothing to do but stare at the countryside and dip in and out of radio stations as you weave up the motorway. With BlaBlaCar (http://www.blablacar.com/) that can now be a thing of the past. BlaBlaCar is a trusted community marketplace that can help you make some extra money by filling up the empty seats in your car. So not only will you make back some of your petrol money and have someone more interesting to talk to than the voice in your head, you’ll also help to save the planet. So far BlaBlaCar reports that it’s 3 million members have shared over 1.8 billion miles and shaved almost 500,000 tonnes off of our global CO2 output, making this a really great example of environmental behavioural change for the masses.
February 25, 2013, No Comments yet. Add yours.
Good is: Cool and Fun.
Issues: Environmental, Health, and Inter-personal Contact.
Geocaching (www.geocaching.com/) is a digital-age version of treasure hunting. Using the GPS in your phone, and a string of clues, you hunt down little treasures hidden in caches in your area. There are 1,993,050 active caches and 5 million geocashers located all over the world. A usual cache may contain a constantly lengthening logbook of people that have found the hidden spot or some small trinket or toy that can be traded around caches.
In a similar way to how www/Historypin.com uses cutting edge technology to breathe new life into looking at old photos, making it an activity 16 year boys might reconsider, Geocaching repositions outdoor play and physical activity for an age that is obsessed with gaming, tech and gadgets.
Geocaching gets people engaging with the history and geography of their local area, breathing fresh air, doing physical exercise and most importantly, enjoying themselves.
July 24, 2012, No Comments yet. Add yours.
Good is: Cool, Fun, Saves money, and social.
Issues: Communication and Inter-personal Contact.
This helps people befriend new people, reciprocate hospitality and get to know new cultures and languages, but for the users, it is primarily a practical tool to find cheap accommodation in other cities. It’s packed with incidental benefits. CouchSurfing has a network of almost 4.5 million users spread across 253 countries. This completely free service can help you connect with people while traveling, or even in your own town, by allowing users to create profiles and search for people in areas they want to stay or offer up their own home. CouchSurfing hopes to create, “a world where everyone can explore and create meaningful connections with the people and places they encounter” and they are well on their way to achieving that goal.
July 6, 2012, No Comments yet. Add yours.
Good is: Cool, Easy, and Fun.
Issues: Community and Inter-personal Contact.
If a brief had been written that set out to find a way to get young people to gain an appreciation for old films, an understanding of the society, politics and culture of different periods, and a shared interest with people of older generations, Secret Cinema would be a perfect solution. Hoping to create an environment where you can live the films rather than just watching them, complete with elaborate sets, actors in character to interact with, and restaurants and bars of the era, Secret Cinema gives moviegoers a chance to cultivate appreciation for the old films in a new way.
May 11, 2012, No Comments yet. Add yours.
Good is: Easy and Useful.
Issues: Inter-personal Contact.
We can’t imagine ANYTHING in the history of time has caused us to reach out and wish our friends Happy Birthday more than the reminder on Facebook
