Sustainable Brands ’10 Announces Innovation Open Finalists and Debuts Associate Membership for Early and Pre-Startup Sustainability Companies

(3BLMedia/theCSRfeed) BURLINGAME, Calif., - May 25, 2010 - Sustainable Life Media announced the top 11 Sustainable Brands Innovation Open (SB’IO) finalists who will be given a VIP pass to the full week of Sustainable Brands 2010, along with the opportunity to pitch to the Innovation Open judges and attendees on Monday June 7, 2010 from 2:00-4:30 pm in the Steinbeck Theater. As a continuation of the judging process, finalists are required to present a live pitch to a panel of judges that includes Jonathan Greenblatt (Founder, Ethos Water) among others. The top 11 will also have shared exhibit space at the Sustainable Solutions Showcase during the conference. 

“We were amazed at the enthusiasm around the Innovation Open this year,” said KoAnn Vikoren Skrzyniarz, CEO of Sustainable Life Media (SLM).  “And floored by the high quality entries that we received, indicating a broad-based entrepreneurial spirit is erupting in the sustainability space. Our esteemed panel of judges has completed the first round of voting and because there was a tie vote, we have awarded 11, rather than 10, finalists for the competition.”   Sustainable Life Media encourages the investment community (VCs, Angels and private investors) to attend SB’IO to vote for the audience favorite and meet the winners and finalists. SLM also announced an event ticket at the Associate Membership level, designed to provide cost-effective access to innovators, membership in the broader SLM community and participation in online learning. At Sustainable Brands ‘10, Associate Members will gain knowledge from our guest speakers and presenters while also benefiting from select parts of the conference, including the Opening Night Program and Reception - which runs immediately after the SB’IO - UnConference sessions, the event expo running Tuesday–Thursday afternoons, Birds of a Feather dinners and wine tasting events on the Expo floor Tuesday and Wednesday evening.  It also includes access for the rest of the year to all premium video and online learning content that Sustainable Life Meida has to offer.   Sustainable Brands Innovation Open Finalists BioLite isan affordable, ultra low emission, wood burning cook stove for the 3 billion people that cook on wood. The BioLite stove features patent-pending technology to harness the fire’s own waste heat to drive the stove’s efficient process. The result is a product that cuts wood consumption in half, reduces toxic smoke emissions by 95% and nearly eliminates black carbon, a potent climate warmer.   Blue Avocado™ is a mission-driven, lifestyle products company that makes it EASY to DO GOOD and GET IT DONE™. A women-owned business started in November 2009, Blue Avocado offers lifestyle products that inspire people to easily reduce their environmental impact, look good and have fun doing it. The gro-pak™ reusable shopping system (which helps to eliminate 1,000 plastic bags annually), Lunch Tote, and Big Chil are just a few members of the Blue Avocado family of reusable and collapsible products that deliver value, avoid waste and invite people to take the first step on the green journey.   Cityscape Farms creates urban greenhouse systems for year round productions of sustainable and local fresh food. Using underutilized parts of the urban landscape such as vacant lots and rooftops, Cityscape Farms aims to transform cities into net food producers instead of merely consumers. The farming is aquaponics, a closed loop system that combines aquaculture (fish cultivation) and hydroponics (soilless farming) whereby filtered fish effluent becomes nutrient feed for crops. It’s efficient, scalable and well-suited for urban applications, does not rely on petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides and is eligible for USDA organic certification.   The Clarity Project is a fine jewelry social enterprise committed to improving the quality of life for miners and their families. We source only fair diamonds, gems and precious metals, and invest all of our net profits back into mining communities.   KOR is creating sustainable hydration with thoughtfully-designed hydration products that deliver a stylish, healthy and rewarding consumer experience.   KOR’s mission is to celebrate and protect water. Leveraging reusable bottles, filtered water solutions, and portable water enhancements, KOR products bridge the gaping divide between the traditional reusable market and the latent market of consumers simply waiting to find a better alternative to the $50 billion global bottled water market.   Myoo Create is a new crowdsourcing community, generating innovative ideas and solutions to social and environmental problems through prize driven challenges. The custom-designed competitions are an effective way for organizations to engage with customers and the wider community to help build their sustainability story and brand reputation.   Open Data Registry’s patent-pending Internet Product Code (IPC) is a specialized unique identifier (URI) embedded with environmental and product life cycle semantics.  It innovates upon UPC / EPC in two key ways: (1) Defining a product’s identity based upon how it was made, rather than who made it; (2) Storing that identity on the Web, rather than in a restricted-access database, such that anyone in the world may freely link any data to or look up any other data across the Web linked to that IPC.   Source4Style makes sustainable design possible by creating the world’s most innovative online marketing platform for designers and suppliers to showcase, connect and transact. Source4Style is poised to become the definitive B2B portal for sustainable design, offering interactive tools that decrease the barriers to ethical global sourcing. Robust search capabilities, interactive sourcing maps, online negotiation tools and breadth of trusted content on environmentally-friendly and fair trade materials will make sustainable design the norm.   Tremont Electric develops and commercializes renewable power generation solutions based on its patented nPower® energy conversion technology. The nPower® intellectual property is centered exclusively on the interaction between electromagnetic fields and the physical world. The initial product, the nPower® PEG, is a $149 wearable generator that recharges cell phones, Mp3 players, cameras and GPS devices by harvesting the kinetic energy generated by human motion, through activities like walking, jogging or riding a bike.   TrueVue Solutions is a software and information company that helps customers discover and quantify the financial risk attached to current environmental and social factors, providing SDR data and access to benchmarking data from hundreds of indicators across 100 industries to help customers understand how they rank within their industry.   ZippGo rents and delivers a zero waste moving box solution to residential and office clients.  Sustainable pack and move solution consists of reusable moving boxes made from 100% recycled plastic, a custom-made reusable and recyclable moving dolly, and sustainable packing supplies made from recycled post consumer paper.  ZippGo delivers the boxes to the client on biodiesel powered delivery trucks, the client packs and moves their belonging, and ZippGo picks up the boxes from the client’s new location at their convenience.  ZippGo boxes come pre-assembled (no tape required) with attached lids, have handles for carrying, are crush proof, tear proof, and water proof.    In addition to the Associate Membership, Sustainable Life Media now offers companies and individuals Corporate or Professional membership options to help them maximize the value they receive from participating at in-person events and provide them access to a growing online archive of sustainable business education. For more information on memberships that include seats at SB’10, visithttp://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/membership.   About Sustainable Brands Conference Widely reputed to be the most compelling sustainability conference of the year, Sustainable Brands 2010 will convene more than 800 brand leaders, top executives from the global brands leading sustainable innovation today, all types of designers participating in this global shift, and an unprecedented list of others. Speakers and sessions provide inspiration, techniques and best practices as economic realities, corporate responsibility and the environment come together to create a new strategic business imperative. Registration is open and seating is limited: http://www.sustainablebrands10.com   About Sustainable Life Media Sustainable Life Media (SLM) is the leading producer of sustainable business conferences and educational events, with products and services designed for the sustainable business community including membership, targeted e-newsletters, online learning programs, community and the flagship Sustainable Brands conference. SLM delivers top news stories related to the who, what and how of environmental and social innovation, and helps community members connect with thought leaders, peers, partners and solutions providers who can help them quickly reach their goals. For more information, please visit: http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/about. To subscribe to SLM Newsletters for free, please visit http://www.sustainablelifemedia.com/newsletters.   SLM7006