Green today has a sassier, sexier, and seductive new look. Forget about the Birkenstocks; it’s all about designer bamboo. It’s about smart design moving products from cradle-to-cradle. It’s about sustainability taking center stage, drawing an increasingly mainstream audience. As a result, independent eco-shops are finding space on store shelves and corporations are responding with their own green lines. With more green products entering the marketplace, green-collared careers are carving a niche in the job market. And some green businesses are also savvy to social responsibility, ensuring new materials like bamboo are being safely sourced.

When considering issues of blended value, I have chosen to categorize concepts, stories and trends according to whether they are driven primarily by financial, social, or environmental motives. Under the [planet] category, you’ll find articles and commentary on compassionate consumerism and the mainstreaming of green, the localvore movement, and cradle-to-cradle design, among others. Be sure to check out the [people] and [profit] categories as well, since the concepts overlap. The 3Ps are just one possible organizing structure used for this blog.