Content Fairy – Guy Redwood's Blog

It’s almost pretty enough to hang on the wall… but the new version of the trioBIKE is a very functional piece of engineering that seemed to cause quite a stir down at the cycle 2007 show. I was down to meet the owners of FunktionAlley (one of our exciting new customers) who are the distributors of trioBIKE in the UK. They had the first two bikes off the production line flown into the show for people to try and buy.

I had my video camera with me and filmed a few clips of the inventor talking about the bike and the story behind it. I’m a huge fan of authenticity and once you hear sammy talk about the product – you know that it’s built with passion. The stuff my coffee should be served with.

The Story behind trioBIKE

TrioBIKE in action

Monbiot.com » About George Monbiot

Whilst watching TV last night, George Monboit was introduced as an influential ‘green’ journalist at the Guardian. So this morning I fired off an email to introduce our eco-aware work hoping that George may know some more companies we could help for free.

One amazing aspect of the eco-aware work we’re doing is this huge excuse we’ve got to talk to cool people. Eco stuff is fundamentally important and that’s a core driver behind our work. But the spark that keeps the buzz around our work is that excuse to interrupt and introduce our work, our partners, our findings to lots of very interesting and influential people.

There isn’t a week that goes by without remembering the day that Seth Godin blogged about us. The big grin came from the fact that he totally got what our pledge to help fair trade and eco companies was about. The simple fact that it’s all about ‘because we can‘.

So who else should we talk to?

We’re about  4 months into our ambitious pledge to help 12 eco aware businesses for free and I thought it was time to give you an update and get this blog back up and focused. It’s been a huge success – the world is much better place for our help. Ed would be very proud of the karma oozing out of our new offices in Leeds.

The first business that signed up and seeded the whole idea is doing exceptionally well from our help. Makes a Change, the organic baby clothing boutique, has seen traffic rise and now has analytics to start honing the whole venture. There’s plenty in the pipeline for this business and I won’t steal Emma’s thunder by spilling the beans here. We essentially mentored Emma in the art of being even more remarkable and SEO. As you can see from the site – Emma totally ‘gets’ it! and this is just the tip of the ice berg.

The next business to sign up was/is more of a longer haul. Positive Planet is a business that provides solar water heating systems that are made for our UK weather. The seals on the system don’t break and you still get super hot water on a dull winter’s day. We haven’t scratched the surface with this one and to be honest, holidays and office moves have not done this project justice. watch this space – as they say.

Then we met Lucy at Tam & Rob – the stylish Fairtrade and organic womens clothing company. They have just launched their revamped website with a new collection of clothing. We held a workshop with Lucy in January, where we went through the whole user centred design process to structure the new website. The new website is a product of the mentoring process. Granted there’s a lot still a lot to do, but it’s all part of big journey and the new site is a foundation for great things.

Next month we have Walk It in the office. That’s a day at the white board to discuss where we can help most. They have huge plans – so lets see where we can take them.

One of the best bits about mentoring the eco companies is that the people behind the businesses are totally immersed in the ethics and detail that make up their offering. We love listening to the stories behind the businesses and the debates over what aspects are important to the business, to the consumer and to the planet. It’s a complex mix and that’s where we focus our support.